Catalent and Novo Holdings: empowering innovation, delivering impact

With its largest acquisition to date, Novo Holdings will partner with Catalent to optimise the development and delivery of life-changing therapies and enhance patient outcomes around the globe.

Developing and delivering life-saving medicines for patients is a rigorous and time-intensive process. From early-stage discovery to commercial launch and beyond, pharmaceutical and biotech innovators face significant challenges, particularly in manufacturing, scaling and meeting strict regulatory standards that vary in different countries. To navigate these complexities, companies turn to experts like Catalent, a leading, global contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO). Catalent provides cutting-edge solutions that enable pharmaceutical and biotech companies to accelerate the development and delivery of therapies that can transform patient lives around the globe.

In December of 2024, Novo Holdings formally closed its previously announced acquisition of Catalent, in a transaction that furthers the company mission to benefit people and the planet through long-term, sustainable investments. Novo Holdings discussions with Catalent began in late 2023 and progressed steadily before ultimately reaching a definitive agreement to add its industry-leading CDMO capabilities to Novo Holdings’ portfolio in February 2024. The organisations then collaborated closely on a successful path to regulatory approval and transaction close. Now, Novo Holdings is focusing on the immediate goal of delivering on the benefits this transaction presents for all stakeholders, including patients, customers and employees.

Strategic alignment in bringing transformative solutions to patients

In 2007, Catalent was established as an independent company following the spin-off of Cardinal Health’s Pharmaceutical Technologies and Services segment. Since then, Catalent has built a legacy of innovation and excellence in the pharma services sector by expanding its capabilities through strategic investments and acquisitions while serving as a trusted partner to some of the world’s most innovative and influential pharma and biotech companies.

Each year, Catalent supplies nearly 70 billion doses of more than 7,000 products and assembles over 320,000 clinical supply patient kits across 1,200 different protocols. Catalent has 1,500 active development programmes supported by more than 2,500 scientists and technicians, and has supported nearly 50% of the FDA new drug approvals in the last 10 years, demonstrating the strength of its industry-leading capabilities.

“Bolstering our presence in the pharma services sector is core to our strategy at Novo Holdings, and Catalent is already a leader in this space, helping biopharma companies launch over 150 new products every year,” said Jonathan Levy, Senior Partner at Principal Investments, Novo Holdings. “With our deep experience in the life sciences sector and Catalent’s broad expertise in development and manufacturing, we believe this partnership will accelerate Catalent’s growth, positioning the company to continue creating value for all stakeholders, including the patients around the world who benefit from the innovative and effective treatments Catalent’s highly skilled team produces.”

Long-term value creation across the ecosystem

The USD 16.5 billion buyout is a milestone for Novo Holdings, marking the largest investment the company has completed to date, the largest acquisition ever made by a Danish company and the largest healthcare buyout in 2024. Once the transaction was completed, Novo Holdings sold three of Catalent’s fill-finish sites and related assets acquired in the buyout to Novo Nordisk, helping Novo Nordisk expand its manufacturing capacity at a scale and speed that meets the growing demand for its industry-leading diabetes and obesity treatments. Following these dispositions, Catalent continues to operate as a leading CDMO across more than 40 facilities, providing oral, injectable, and respiratory finished dose supply for drugs and consumer health products; biologics including protein, gene, and cell therapies; and a broad range of clinical trial supply and development services.

“The addition of Catalent to our portfolio aligns with our investment strategy of fostering innovation and sustainable value creation across the life sciences ecosystem,” said Christoffer Søderberg, Head of Principal Investments at Novo Holdings. “As a leading global healthcare investor, we will via our engaged ownership model leverage our extensive network and deep sector expertise to support Catalent’s continued development, enabling it to expand its market leadership and deliver even greater value to its stakeholders. This acquisition reinforces our strategic focus on strengthening our presence in the pharma services sector, which plays a vital role in ensuring reliable patient access to innovative and effective treatments.”

“Our partnership with Novo Holdings is a testament to our Patient First culture and our commitment to delivering the highest level of service to our customers, to help ensure treatments can reach patients in need,” said Alessandro Maselli, President and CEO of Catalent. “Novo Holdings is an engaged partner that shares our values, and we look forward to working closely with its team and leveraging our combined expertise and enhanced resources to advance Catalent’s mission and continue to drive transformative healthcare outcomes.”

Importantly, Novo Holdings and Catalent’s aligned mission, talented team and complementary capabilities in the life sciences sector will translate into unparallelled service for Catalent’s customers.

“Any organisation can claim to put patients first, but at Catalent we put these words into action every day,” Maselli added. “Through our many conversations with the team at Novo Holdings, it was clear that they live and embody the same principle – and that’s what makes the potential of this combination so exciting for both teams.”