Global big pharma (large drugmakers) are carrying out mergers and acquisitions (M&A) transactions to buy other corporations for trillions of won. Observers say the competition to secure pipelines (new drug development candidates), which had slowed earlier this year due to U.S. tariff uncertainty, is gaining momentum again.
Novo Nordisk, a Danish drugmaker known for the obesity treatment Wegovy (ingredient name semaglutide), said on the 9th (local time) it will acquire U.S. biotech corporations Akero Therapeutics for up to $5.2 billion (about 7.38 trillion won).
Akero Therapeutics is a Nasdaq-listed corporations developing treatments for metabolic diseases. On news of the acquisition that day, Akero's share price rose 16.28% from the previous day at the close. Novo Nordisk secured the company's core pipeline, the metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) treatment new drug candidate efruxifermin.
Novo Nordisk signed a contract that includes CVR (Contingent Value Rights). CVR is an M&A transaction method in which the acquiring corporations does not pay the full value of the target corporations in cash at once, but pays a certain amount in cash at the time of the deal and then pays additional consideration upon meeting specific conditions.
Novo Nordisk will pay $54 per Akero share, totaling $4.7 billion (about 6.67 trillion won) in cash, and, if efruxifermin wins U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval by Jun. 30, 2031, it will pay an additional $6 per share, totaling $500 million. The company said that after regulatory approvals, the final acquisition process is expected to be completed between the end of this year and early next year.
Industry watchers analyzed that Novo Nordisk chose to acquire corporations to fill the revenue gap from patent expirations of key medicines and to secure future growth engines. The China patents for Novo Nordisk's diabetes and obesity treatments Ozempic and Wegovy are set to expire in 2026, and the U.S. patents are known to expire in Dec. 2031.
Last month as well, big pharma announced billion-dollar M&A deals in succession. Biotech corporations with anticancer drugs and metabolic disease new drug candidates—areas with large market size and strong growth—were mainly cited as acquisition targets.
Danish drug corporations Genmab said it will acquire Merus, a Netherlands biotech developing anticancer drugs, for $8 billion. U.S. Pfizer bought Metsera, a corporations based in the United States developing obesity and metabolic disease treatments, for $4.9 billion, and Swiss corporations Roche announced it will acquire U.S.-based 89bio, which has a MASH new drug candidate, for $2.4 billion.
This year, biopharma stocks underperformed other sectors in global stock markets, and as premiums fell, some say an environment favorable to big pharma M&A has formed. Signals of rate cuts in the second half also played a part.
Heo Hyemin, a Kiwoom Securities researcher, said, "As large transactions pick up, investment sentiment in U.S. biotech corporations is also improving," and noted, "Amid regulatory uncertainty, big pharma's aggressive efforts to secure pipelines are acting as a new momentum (upward driver)."