On October 31, Pfizer For US weight loss drug manufacturer Metsera and Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk Novo Nordisk filed a lawsuit alleging that Metera violated the terms of the merger agreement. On October 25, Novo Nordisk made an offer to acquire Metera worth up to $8.5 billion, more than a billion dollars higher than Pfizer 's previous offer.
In response, Pfizer requested a temporary restraining order from the Delaware court to prevent Metsera from terminating its agreement with Pfizer. Meanwhile, Metsera stated that it had given Pfizer time to revise its offer, requiring it to raise its bid by next Tuesday. Pfizer, however, indicated its desire for Metsera to hold a shareholder vote on the acquisition as scheduled on November 13th.
The lawsuit between Pfizer and Novo Nordisk over the acquisition of a weight-loss therapy reflects the significant increase in the valuation of weight-loss therapy assets over the past year. According to Pfizer's lawsuit documents, Pfizer began negotiating to acquire Metsera in 2024. Novo Nordisk first formally made an acquisition offer for Metsera on January 23 of this year, valuing the company at $2 billion. Metsera's board of directors rejected the offer, citing regulatory risks and the valuation being too low.
Subsequently, on June 2nd of this year, Pfizer made a non-binding takeover offer to Metsera at $30 per share, after which Pfizer and Novo Nordisk competed to raise their bids. Metsera was negotiating with both companies simultaneously.
By September of this year, both Pfizer and Novo Nordisk had submitted revised acquisition proposals. Pfizer's offer for Metera also increased from $30 per share to a maximum of $70 per share throughout the entire transaction process.
Pfizer stated that Novo Nordisk's final offer, submitted on September 20, contained a complex shareholding structure involving non-voting shares and dividends, which the Metsera board deemed too risky. Meanwhile, Pfizer has received early antitrust approval from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission for its proposed $7.3 billion acquisition of Metsera.
Pfizer also claims that Novo Nordisk's potential acquisition of Metsera would be detrimental to market competition, as the latter already holds a dominant market position in the weight loss therapy field, while Pfizer currently does not offer any weight loss therapy. Analysts predict that Metsera's potential weight loss therapy in development could generate approximately $5 billion in annual sales.
Barclays bank The global market for weight loss therapies is projected to reach $150 billion by 2030. This means that, in addition to the two current giants in the weight loss drug field, Eli Lilly... Besides Novo Nordisk and Nord, new entrants are also expected to share a huge market.
The bidding war between the two pharmaceutical giants over Metsera is not only related to the companies' own strategic plans, but will also have a significant impact on the future competitive landscape of the global weight loss drug market.
Publicly available information shows that Metsera's core assets mainly include a GLP-1 receptor agonist in Phase 2 development and an ultra-long-acting amylin analog in Phase 1 development. These two drugs are expected to be used in combination. If the "GLP-1 + amylin" combination therapy is successfully validated, it is expected to create a differentiated advantage in efficacy and safety, posing a direct challenge to current mainstream products in the market. In addition, the company also has two oral GLP-1 peptide drugs.
Pfizer's in-house development of weight-loss drugs has been fraught with difficulties. Its GLP-1 weight-loss drug, Danuglipron, was discontinued due to safety concerns, and another candidate drug has been abandoned. After these setbacks, acquisitions have become an inevitable choice for Pfizer to quickly enter the weight-loss drug market. At the same time, facing pressure on its performance, Pfizer urgently needs to find new growth drivers in the post-pandemic era by investing in high-growth sectors.
As one of the two giants in the current weight loss drug market, Novo Nordisk saw its star GLP-1 therapy, semaglutide, grow by 58% year-on-year in the first half of 2025, with the weight loss version of semaglutide growing by 78% year-on-year, making it the fastest-growing product line.
However, Novo Nordisk is also under pressure from another weight loss therapy giant , Eli Lilly . Eli Lilly 's GLP-1 drug telpotetide series generated $14.734 billion in sales in the first half of this year, continuously challenging semaglutide's leading position.
With the strong entry of new weight loss therapy manufacturers like Pfizer, the future weight loss drug market will shift from a "two-horse race" to a "multi-player battle." (Goldman Sachs ) It is predicted that by 2030, oral GLP-1 drugs will account for approximately 24% of the weight loss therapy market, indicating huge potential for market growth.
(Article source: CBN)
