Novo Nordisk owner buys majority stake in Austrian life science tools company

Maggie Fick
·2 min read

By Maggie Fick

LONDON (Reuters) - Novo Holdings, the controlling shareholder of Danish obesity drugmaker Novo Nordisk, said on Wednesday it would buy a controlling stake of about 60% in Single Use Support, an Austria-based life science tools company.

It declined to give a precise value for the deal but a spokesperson said it would be a "high triple-digit million euros" amount.

Single Use Support's two founders will each retain 10% and U.S. life sciences firm Danaher will retain 20%.

CONTEXT

Novo Holdings is the investment arm of the Novo Nordisk Foundation and has 77% of voting shares in Novo Nordisk, which produces blockbuster obesity drug Wegovy and diabetes treatment Ozempic.

Novo Holdings CEO Kasim Kutay told Reuters in October that the huge Wegovy windfall would increase the size of deals it would do in healthcare, particularly for well-established life-science companies.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT

Novo Holdings said the acquisition was part of its focus on companies that provide services to the pharmaceuticals industry.

In February, Novo Holdings said it would buy Catalent, a large U.S.-based contract drugmaker that helps make Wegovy, for $16.5 billion.

Single Use Support, founded in 2017, makes equipment and consumables to support the production of drugs, in particular biologic medicines, cell and gene therapies, and mRNA vaccines.

KEY QUOTE

Single Use Support "got a huge boost" from business from Moderna during the COVID-19 pandemic, Johan Hueffer, senior partner in principal investments at Novo Holdings told Reuters.

"They've been growing like a weed and we think there's a lot more runway to go because they have a very good product," he said.

"Our aim is to help them take that product to further customers in Europe but also more globally, and we've got the sort of footprint to help."

Novo Nordisk does not currently use Single Use Support products for its manufacturing of Wegovy, he said.

($1 = 6.8954 Danish crowns)

(Reporting by Maggie Fick; Editing by Mark Potter)