Novo Nordisk (NVO) announced a new R&D deal with two US biotech firms valued at $1.1 billion, in an attempt to keep up with competition on obesity drugs and expand treatments for a liver disease known as MASH (Metabolic Dysfunction-associated Steatohepatitis).
The biotech firms listed were Omega Therapeutics (OMGA) and Cellarity, which are under the umbrella of Flagship Pioneering.
Yahoo Finance Anchors Madison Mills and Seana Smith break down the latest developments with these companies and what it could mean moving forward.
For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live.
Editor's note: This article was written by Nicholas Jacobino.
Video Transcript
MADISON MILLS: And along with that, I also want to pivot a little bit. Talk about Novo Nordisk signing a $1.1 billion obesity R&D deal with two biotech companies. The drugmaker announcing those partnerships and those agreements will aid in the company's development of treatments for a liver disease known as MASH.
And, of course, obesity now, it's interesting to see these deals already taken place when we've had a lot of guests on our show talk about how these partnerships and deals are going to continue this year. And biotech and pharmaceuticals are going to have a lot of deal making and partnerships this year. You can see the Street rewarding these names in the futures trade this morning.
Eight minutes ahead of the open here, Novo Nordisk up 1.5% off of this news. And this morning it was up 2.9% following this news as well, Seana. So seeing a reward there.
SEANA SMITH: It is. We certainly have seen the Street very encouraged by Wegovy, by Novo Nordisk investment in this space in the weight loss space here in the past. Currently, Yahoo Finance's Company of the Year for 2023, given the massive run up that we did see in shares last year-- up just about 50%.
But this investment and why we are seeing Novo Nordisk once again trade in the green is really, this is just doubling down and a bet here on the future pipeline of drugs, experimental pipeline that they have, so to hopefully here maintain their lead that they do have up until this point it looks like in this very fast growing market of obesity drugs. So again, making this investment in these two companies. We'll see how this all plays out. But again, Omega Therapeutics and Celerity.
