On 6 December 2024, the European Commission unconditionally cleared Novo Holdings acquisition of Catalent, a contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), as well as Novo Nordisk’s subsequent acquisition of three Catalent manufacturing sites from Novo Holdings.
By providing additional fill-finish capacity, the transaction would enable Novo Nordisk to reach more obesity and diabetes patients faster. The Commission examined in detail whether the proposed transaction would hamper Novo Nordisk’s rivals’ access to fill finish capacity in the market. The Commission found that customers would continue to have access to a number of alternative CDMOs and sufficient available fill-finish capacity would remain in the market. The Commission examined if customers of CDMO services for orally disintegrating tablets (ODT) would have adequate alternatives post-transaction, which was found to be true and that switching was possible. The Commission press release can be found here.
A CRA team including Raphaël De Coninck, Elina Koustoumpardi, Christoph von Muellern, Samuel Zimmerman, Mariam Arutyunyan, Alina Sagimuldina, Marcel Wieting, Caspar Mueller and Liam Connolly assisted Novo Holdings and Novo Nordisk in this deal.
