Four burning questions about the future of the $16.5B Novo-Catalent deal

To build or to buy? That’s a clas­sic ques­tion for phar­ma board­rooms, and No­vo Nordisk is go­ing with both.

Be­yond spend­ing bil­lions of dol­lars to ex­pand its own pro­duc­tion ca­pac­i­ty for its weight loss drugs, the Dan­ish drug­mak­er said Mon­day it will pay $11 bil­lion to ac­quire three man­u­fac­tur­ing plants from Catal­ent. It’s part of a broad­er $16.5 bil­lion deal with No­vo Hold­ings, the in­vest­ment arm of the phar­ma’s par­ent group, which agreed to ac­quire the con­tract man­u­fac­tur­er and take it pri­vate.

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