Pharma BD Deal Intelligence
Novo Nordisk acquired Emisphere for $1.35B for pill-based diabetes treatment.
Novo Nordisk completes acquisition of Emisphere Technologies for $1.35 billion ($7.83/share); separately completed $450M acquisition of the Eligen…
Novo Nordisk FY2024: Rybelsus (oral semaglutide, built on Emisphere's Eligen/SNAC delivery technology) net sales of DKK 23.3 billion (~$3.4B).
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Novo Nordisk acquired Emisphere Technologies (Nasdaq: EMIS) for $1.35 billion in cash (~$7.83/share on ~170.9M fully diluted shares; ~17% premium), completing December 8, 2020. Concurrently, Novo Nordisk paid a separate $450 million to affiliates of MHR Fund Management LLC to acquire the related Eligen/SNAC royalty-stream obligations — bringing total consideration to roughly $1.8 billion. The prize was Emisphere's proprietary Eligen oral drug-delivery technology (the SNAC absorption-enhancing carrier), already licensed by Novo Nordisk and used in the oral formulation of semaglutide (Rybelsus), the first oral GLP-1 receptor agonist. The buy-in eliminated future royalty leakage on a franchise whose oral semaglutide product reached DKK 23.3 billion (~$3.4B) in net sales by FY2024.
| Deal | Year | Value | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| Novo Nordisk A/S / Emisphere Technologies (this deal) | 2020 | $1.4B | 90 |
| Novo Nordisk A/S / Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Inc. | 2019 | $3.3B | 88 |
| Novo Nordisk A/S / Vivtex Inc. | 2026 | $2.1B | 69 |
| Novo Nordisk A/S / Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Inc. | 2021 | $3.3B | 68 |
| Novo Nordisk A/S / Forma Therapeutics Holdings Inc. | 2022 | $1.1B | 68 |
| Novo Nordisk A/S / Inversago Pharma | 2023 | $1.1B | 61 |
| Novo Nordisk A/S / Forma Therapeutics Holdings Inc. | 2022 | $1.1B | 58 |
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