During a press conference to announce a drug price deal for GLP-1s, President Donald Trump asked for more details about the ongoing bidding war between Novo Nordisk and Pfizer over obesity biotech Metsera.
“Our message to Pfizer is that if they would like to buy the company, then put your hand in the pocket and bid higher,” Novo Nordisk CEO Maziar Mike Doustdar said from the lectern in the Oval Office on Thursday, as President Donald Trump looked on.
Doustdar, speaking at the White House to announce a drug pricing deal for Novo’s GLP-1 franchise, was asked by a reporter about the ongoing bidding war between his company and Pfizer to acquire Metsera, and the Federal Trade Commission’s objection to the deal structure Novo has put forth.
“Maybe you should give us a piece of the company like I’ve been asking for,” Trump said to Doustdar, as he took the lectern. Earlier in his prepared remarks, Doustdar had sought to frame Novo not as a Danish company but as one with deep American roots through its 100-year history.
Trump then asked several questions about the acquisition, clarifying the players: “It’s you and Pfizer? Competing for the company?” Doustdar confirmed. Trump then asked: “Who’s winning?”
The Novo CEO said that his company’s bid is the highest, though it’s unclear exactly what bid is currently holding the top spot. Pfizer reportedly matched Novo’s $10 billion bid on Thursday. Metsera has not returned a request for comment on the status of the negotiations as of publication.
Trump also asked Doustdar about Metsera’s products, to which he explained that “it’s a series of products that will come to the market in around turn of the decade, where the market is very crowded with many, many other players as well.”
Indeed, Metsera has multiple obesity assets in its pipeline, including an injectable version of MET-097 that in a Phase IIb trial showed 14% placebo-adjusted weight reduction at 28 weeks—a result Leerink Partners compared with Eli Lilly’s Zepbound. But analysts have pointed out that there are plenty of other startups in the space, begging the question: Is Metsera worth the fuss?
TD Cowen analyst Steve Scala said it’s not. Metsera’s “data looks more similar than different than competitors,” he said on the Pfizer’s third-quarter earnings call. “Nothing in all this justifies a bidding war or even a protracted legal battle,” Scala said.
Nevertheless, Pfizer and Novo both seem dead set on making Metsera their own. Pfizer first announced in September it would buy the biotech for $4.9 billion, and an SEC filing last month revealed that the pharma had beat out at least two other suitors in the process.
But Novo then roared onto the scene, topping Pfizer’s bid with an $8.5 billion offer. Then, in the span of a week, at least two additional offers from the two drug giants brought the buyout value to $10 billion.
In the middle of this bidding war, Pfizer sued Novo, Metsera and the biotech’s lead shareholders, alleging that Novo was simply looking to squash “a nascent American competitor before it gains the support of Pfizer, one of America’s leading pharmaceutical companies.” Sure enough, the FTC has already taken an interest in Novo’s offer, sending a letter to Novo and Metsera’s lawyers questioning whether the pharma’s involvement could reduce Metsera’s “incentive to continue its development efforts to bring its pharmaceutical products to market.”
But in the White House on Thursday, Doustdar was adamant. “It’s a free market,” he said, adding that the issue “has nothing to do with the FTC,” but rather who ultimately bids the highest.
