Following the news that Novo Holdings, the parent company to Novo Nordisk, has agreed to acquire contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) Catalent for $16.5 billion;

Costanza Alciati, Pharma Analyst at GlobalData, a leading data and analyst company, offers her view:

“Novo Nordisk has been struggling to meet the demand related to its GLP-1R agonists products, notably Ozempic and Wegovy, approved for type 2 diabetes and obesity respectively. Throughout the past year, the pharma major has increased its production power, opening new manufacturing sites in the US and France.

“The acquisition of Catalent by Novo Holdings expects to see three new manufacturing sites added to Novo Nordisk’s arsenal, to boost drugs production further. Novo Nordisk is definitely putting all its effort into investing the all-time high profits made in this past year from Wegovy’s launch and solving this shortage issue, derived from the success of its own drugs. The demand for Ozempic and Wegovy is not expected to decrease any time soon, although fierce competitors have reached the market. Thus the Danish company must make sure that these therapies are available to the patients in need as soon as possible.”