(Reuters) – All regulatory closing conditions related to Novo Holdings' $16.5 billion acquisition of U.S. drugmaker Catalent (NYSE:) have been met, the companies said on Saturday, adding that the transaction will be completed in the next few days.
In February, Novo Holdings agreed to buy Catalent to boost production of the popular weight-loss drug Wegovy. Under the terms of the deal, Novo Holdings would sell three of Catalent's factories, where injection pens are filled under sterile conditions, in Italy, Belgium and the United States, to Novo Nordisk (NYSE:) for $11 billion.
Novo Holdings is the majority shareholder in Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk, which makes the successful GLP-1 injectable weight-loss drug Wegovy.
Novo Nordisk said the acquisition is expected to have a mid-single-digit negative impact on the company's operating profit growth through 2025, and that the company does not expect to initiate a share buyback program in 2025.
The deal had received EU antitrust approval in early December, and the European Commission said in a statement that “the proposed merger would not raise competition concerns in any of the markets examined in the EEA (European Economic Area) or in any substantial part of it.” “.
Several US consumer groups and two major unions had urged the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in October to block the deal. US Senator Elizabeth Warren had also asked the FTC to examine the $16.5 billion deal.
In May, the FTC had requested more information about Novo's acquisition of Catalent. However, there has been no update from the FTC since then.
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;n.queue=();t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)(0);s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,’script’,’https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js’);
