Novo Nordisk AS, a leading pharmaceutical company, has announced a $11 billion acquisition to expand its production of "miracle weight-loss drugs". The new facility is expected to gradually commence operations by 2026.

The "miracle weight-loss drug" Wegovy and the diabetes treatment drug Ozempic have brought great success to Novo Nordisk AS, but at the same time, they have also brought troubles to the company - the bottleneck of the supply chain is unable to meet the explosive growth of the weight-loss and diabetes markets.

On Monday, February 5th, local time, according to media reports, Novo Nordisk AS's controlling shareholder, Novo Holdings, agreed to acquire Catalent in Somerset, New Jersey for $16.5 billion (including debt). As part of the deal, Novo Holdings will resell the three key bases of Catalent to Novo Nordisk AS for $11 billion.

Novo Holdings, as a major shareholder of Novo Nordisk AS, has a significant influence on its business decisions. Novo Holdings' strategic move aims to help Novo Nordisk AS increase its production capacity for its popular diabetes and obesity treatment drugs to meet the "spiral growth of prescriptions". Novo Nordisk AS expects these prescriptions to generate billions of dollars in annual sales and states that these three bases will gradually start production in 2026.

Through such strategic decisions, Novo Holdings and Novo Nordisk AS are working together to strengthen their position in the global pharmaceutical market, especially in the field of diabetes and obesity treatment.

Catalent is one of the largest outsourcing manufacturing suppliers in the pharmaceutical industry, with more than 50 production bases worldwide and sales of $4.3 billion last year. Catalent is an important partner for many top pharmaceutical companies and specializes in the final stage of drug production, namely "filling and sealing" operations. The three production bases acquired by Novo Nordisk AS specialize in the final stage of drug production - "filling and sealing" operations. Through this acquisition, Novo Nordisk AS not only gains immediate additional production capacity but also utilizes Catalent's expertise and experience to improve production efficiency and accelerate drug production and supply.

These bases are located in Indiana, USA, Brussels, Belgium, and Anagni, Italy. Two of these bases have already been used by Novo Nordisk AS for the filling services of its injection pens. Novo Nordisk AS is facing pressure to increase its production of prefilled injection pens and semaglutide (the active pharmaceutical ingredient used in Ozempic and Wegovy). While the new production facilities will not immediately address the limitations in its supply chain, Novo Nordisk AS has stated that these facilities will "gradually increase its filling capacity" starting from 2026.