Dive Brief:

• Novo Nordisk said it is in exclusive talks to buy French medical device company Biocorp.
• Novo Nordisk will buy out Biocorp’s main shareholder, Bio Jag, for 35 euros per share, and then make a tender offer for any outstanding shares at the same price, the companies said Monday. The offer would value all of the company at 154 million euros ($165 million). 
• Denmark-based Novo Nordisk, which makes pharmaceutical products and insulin pens, has been collaborating with Biocorp since 2021 on a smart pen cap that tracks information on dose, date and time of injection. 

Dive Insight:

Novo Nordisk wants to innovate faster and develop new connected devices, and expects that Biocorp would complement its internal efforts, said Marianne Ølholm, Novo Nordisk’s senior vice president of devices and delivery solutions. 

Novo Nordisk will work with Biocorp to invest in new devices and drug delivery solutions for people with chronic diseases, according to the statement.

Some of Biocorp’s connected devices include a smart cap to monitor inhaler use, a smart pen injector, and a smart cap for pen injectors. Biocorp received clearance from the Food and Drug Administration for the smart pen cap, called Mallya, last year. Novo Nordisk had collaborated with Biocorp on developing and commercializing the device for people with diabetes starting in 2021. More recently, the companies have expanded development to other therapy areas.

“Good, but small acquisition for Novo, and a natural development of a good and healthy cooperation initiated in 2021 and expanded since,” said Henrik Hallengreen Laustsen, a senior equity analyst at Jyske Bank in Denmark. He said the purchase will give Novo full ownership of Biocorp’s smart pen technology, much the way it gained control of Emisphere’s oral drug-delivery technology when it bought the New Jersey medtech for $1.8 billion in 2020.

“The technology can help people with diabetes with better and more accurate treatment – we see no reason why Novo should not be able to use the technology in other disease areas where patients also use a pen, such as obesity,” Hallengreen Laustsen said in an email. 

Novo Nordisk’s offer of 35 euros per share is about 20% higher than Biocorp’s closing stock price on June 2. 

Biocorp’s board of directors unanimously approved the proposed transaction on June 4. Novo Nordisk expects the block purchase to take place during the third quarter of 2023 and the subsequent offer to take place in September.

Biocorp reported revenue of 11.67 million euros in 2022, largely from milestone payments, CEO Eric Dessertenne said in a March earnings statement.

Updates with comment from analyst.