Pfizer information second lawsuit in opposition to Novo Nordisk, Metsera

Pfizer on Monday stated it filed a second lawsuit in opposition to Novo Nordisk and Metsera, alleging that the Danish drugmaker’s try and outbid Pfizer to amass the weight problems biotech is anticompetitive. 

Pfizer alleges that Ozempic maker Novo Nordisk’s proposed acquisition of Metsera would assist it preserve its dominant place within the blockbuster weight problems market by eliminating a smaller potential competitor, in line with the lawsuit filed Monday within the U.S. District Courtroom in Delaware. The swimsuit additionally alleges that Metsera’s controlling shareholders conspired with the weight problems biotech and Novo Nordisk. 

In a press release on Monday, Ambre James Brown, Novo Nordisk’s vp of world media, stated “Pfizer’s baseless claims that Novo Nordisk intends to suppress innovation by way of our provide is fake and with out benefit.”

“As a substitute of competing on worth, Pfizer has taken the extremely uncommon and seemingly determined strategy in submitting its antitrust lawsuit in the present day,” Brown stated. She added that Novo Nordisk’s provide, together with the construction of the transaction, complies with all relevant legal guidelines and is within the “greatest curiosity” of sufferers and Metsera shareholders.

In a assertion, Metsera stated, “Pfizer is attempting to litigate its strategy to shopping for Metsera for a lower cost than Novo Nordisk.” The corporate added that Pfizer’s litigation arguments “are nonsense, and Metsera will tackle them in court docket.”

The brand new swimsuit escalates a heated standoff between Pfizer and Novo Nordisk over Metsera, whose weight problems pipeline may yield new rivals within the booming weight reduction drug market. Pfizer in September stated that it could purchase Metsera for $4.9 billion, or as much as $7.3 billion with future funds – a deal that could possibly be the corporate’s golden ticket to enter the area after struggling to convey its personal weight problems merchandise to market. 

However Novo Nordisk on Thursday launched a takeover bid valuing the biotech at round $6 billion, triggering a deadline of 4 enterprise days for Pfizer to renegotiate its provide. On Friday, Pfizer filed its first lawsuit in opposition to Novo Nordisk and Metsera looking for to dam the biotech from terminating its current merger cope with Pfizer. 

That swimsuit, filed within the Delaware Courtroom of Chancery, alleges that Novo Nordisk’s provide cannot qualify as a superior proposal as a result of it isn’t moderately prone to be accomplished as a consequence of its vital regulatory danger.

Novo Nordisk helped set up the burden loss drug area, bringing to market extremely efficient GLP-1 medication, together with the diabetes injection Ozempic and weight problems shot Wegovy. However the firm has misplaced its main place available in the market to its chief rival, Eli Lilly, during the last yr and has struggled to impress buyers with its pipeline.