Denmark’s Novo Nordisk to buy Emisphere Technologies in $1.8 billion deal

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Danish diabetes drug maker Novo Nordisk will acquire U.S. Emisphere Technologies, which specialises in developing orally administered versions of drugs, in a deal totalling $1.8 billion, it said on Friday.

Novo Nordisk will buy all outstanding shares in Emisphere at a price of $1.35 billion, while also taking over royalty obligations to the firms biggest shareholder worth $450 million, which makes the total acquisition price $1.8 billion.

“The acquisition of Emisphere provides Novo Nordisk full ownership of the Eligen SNAC technology, which has been successfully used under a licence agreement to develop the first oral biologic, Rybelsus,” Chief Scientific Officer Mads Krogsgaard said in a statement.

(Reporting by Nikolaj Skydsgaard; Editing by Edmund Blair)