Headlines
Pfizer sues Metsera, Novo Nordisk over rival obesity drug bid
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on October 31, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 21, 2026
Global Banking & Finance Review®
Company
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on October 31, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 21, 2026
Pfizer sues Metsera and Novo Nordisk over an obesity drug bid, alleging breach of merger agreement and antitrust issues as it seeks to enter the obesity market.
(Reuters) -Pfizer said on Friday it had filed a lawsuit against Metsera and Novo Nordisk , saying Metsera breached its merger agreement obligations in declaring the Danish drugmaker's $8.5 billion bid for the U.S. obesity drug developer to be a superior offer.
Pfizer asked the Delaware court where it filed the lawsuit to issue a temporary restraining order to block Metsera from terminating the agreement. The lawsuit was not immediately available in the court's electronic filing system.
Metsera has given Pfizer until Tuesday to raise its offer.
Pfizer said its suit says that Novo's bid is an illegal attempt by a dominant company in the market to bypass antitrust scrutiny and carries significant regulatory risks.
The legal action comes as Pfizer received early antitrust clearance for its proposed $7.3 billion acquisition of Metsera from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. It granted early termination of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act, more than a week ahead of the November 7 deadline.
Pfizer, which does not currently sell a weight-loss drug, is trying to enter the fast-growing obesity market projected to reach $150 billion by the early 2030s.
The company has faced setbacks in developing its own treatments and is looking to offset falling COVID-related revenue and looming patent expirations.
Novo Nordisk, maker of Wegovy and Ozempic, is seeking to regain ground lost to Eli Lilly, whose drugs Zepbound and Mounjaro have shown stronger clinical results.
Metsera's pipeline includes experimental GLP-1 and amylin-based therapies that analysts say could generate $5 billion in peak sales.
Metsera and Novo did not immediately reply to Reuters' requests for comment.
(Reporting by Kamal Choudhury, Christy Santhosh and Siddhi Mahatole in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar and Anil D'Silva)
A merger agreement is a legal document that outlines the terms and conditions under which two companies agree to combine their operations into a single entity.
Antitrust scrutiny refers to the examination and regulation of business practices to prevent monopolies and promote competition in the marketplace.
A temporary restraining order is a court order that temporarily prohibits an individual or entity from taking a specific action, often used to maintain the status quo during legal proceedings.
An acquisition is the process of one company purchasing another company, either through buying its shares or assets, to gain control over it.
The Hart-Scott-Rodino Act is a U.S. law that requires companies to file pre-merger notifications with the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice to allow for antitrust review.
Explore more articles in the Headlines category
