The Auvergne SME Biocorp will be bought by the global diabetes treatment giant. Novo Nordisk has indeed entered into exclusive negotiations with the medtech, which manufactures connected medical devices, we read in a press release dated this morning. The Dane proposed a price of 35 euros per share to get his hands on the entire stake in Bio Jag, the holding company of CEO Jacques Gardette, i.e. 45.3% of the capital and 62.19% of the voting rights.
An expected operation (Jacques Gardette is 75 years old) which would be followed, if it materializes, by the filing of Novo Nordisk, on an obligatory basis, of a simplified public purchase offer (OPA) relating to the balance of the shares issued, valuing at 154 million euros the French company authorized, since the end of last year, to sell in the United States, the world’s largest diabetes market, its “Mallya” device for the intelligent delivery of insulin . The Nyenburgh, Greenstock and Vatel Capital funds, together holding 19% of the capital (13.1% of voting rights), have committed to contributing their securities. Novo Nordisk would then hold 64.3% of the capital (75.3% of voting rights).
“The completion of the acquisition of the controlling block should take place during the third quarter and the submission of the subsequent offer during the month of September”, indicates Biocorp, with potentially a squeeze-out procedure if Novo Nordisk manages to cross the 90% thresholds. The medtech stock price is suspended for the day before trading resumes tomorrow. At its all-time high, in April 2022, it was worth 38.9 euros (compared to an introductory price of 9.25 euros in the summer of 2015).
“The price of 35 euros reflects a relatively high enterprise value to 2023 turnover multiple of 12.8x and a premium of +19.5% compared to the last price (+43% on the May 18 price) »comments the financial analysis office Invest Securities.
“The price is slightly lower than our target price of 36.8 euros but will certainly convince many minorities”we react at Portzamparc. “Although this capital-intensive operation is integrated into our scenarios, we only expected it after the first dedicated sales. Novo having recently launched the product in Japan, wishes to accelerate by carrying out the production of Mallya on a larger scale with their own capacities” while Eli Lilly, the other big name in diabetes, has developed Mallya’s equivalent in-house.
60 million disposable pens are sold each year
The two companies know each other well since Novo Nordisk, alongside Sanofi, Roche and Merck KGaA, is one of the “big pharmas” with which Biocorp was already a partner. Mallya, the SME’s “star” device, is a connected sensor, which is integrated into the disposable insulin pens of all players in the sector, which opens up a gigantic market for it (nearly 60 million disposable pens are sold each year). It is the only system to be authorized both in Europe and in the United States and Japan, another large market for diabetes. It is distributed by Roche Diabetes Care in France, by Sanofi in Europe and Novo Nordisk in Japan, on its FlexTouch pens. In the United States, it will be launched as a priority by Sanofi, which will integrate it into its Solostar injector pen.
Mallya is revolutionary in that it allows treatment compliance, not to be confused with blood sugar monitoring, already made possible in particular by connected patches, such as Abbott’s FreeStyle. Biocorp management has already explained that half of diabetes patients were undertreated due to an insufficient injected dose. This is where Mallya makes the difference: the device records the dose and time of each injection and transmits them to the patient’s mobile application, to their doctor and, anonymously, to the laboratory.