Big pharma, big fight

The pharma giants are fighting again—and this time, the claws are coming out.

It’s no secret that the battle for a bigger piece of the weight-loss drugs market has been a brutal one. Now, Novo Nordisk and Pfizer are in a knock-down, drag-out legal fight that centers around a small, relatively unknown biotech startup named Metsera.

Today, Pfizer filed its second lawsuit in under a week against Novo Nordisk and Metsera, arguing that Novo’s bid to acquire Metsera violates antitrust laws because it would allow Novo, a market share leader, to kill off new competition.

Let’s zoom out for a moment…

Novo Nordisk, the maker of Ozempic, was first out of the gate in the war for the hyper-lucrative weight-loss drug market. But after a slew of supply chain bungles, it lost its leadership to competitor Eli Lilly, which created its own versions of GLP-1 drugs.

Pfizer has been sitting on the sidelines, but it wants in on the weight-loss action. That’s why Pfizer set its sights on newcomer Metsera, a biotech company developing its own monthly weight-loss injection. Back in September, Pfizer offered to acquire Metsera for $4.9 billion, but up to $7.3 billion if you include future payments after meeting certain milestones.

But Novo Nordisk swooped in last week, offering its own deal to acquire Metsera for up to $8.5 billion. Metsera happily accepted the higher offer on Thursday, which is why Pfizer filed lawsuit number one against Novo and Metsera on Friday.

Pfizer’s argument in that suit is that Novo’s deal isn’t actually superior because future regulatory scrutiny means the acquisition is not likely to be completed. In its second suit, filed today, Pfizer says that Novo Nordisk is just being plain old anticompetitive.

What’s next? Novo and Metsera are fighting back against Pfizer’s lawsuit, and while it’s still far too early to tell who will come out on top, early analysis shows that Pfizer may actually have a point. Novo Nordisk shareholders might agree: Shares of the Danish pharma giant are down 7% over the last five days.

But no matter who emerges victorious, right now the big winner is Metsera: Shares are up over 16% in the last week—LB