Pfizer has won its bidding war with Novo Nordisk for Metsera, a New York-based clinical-stage bio/pharmaceutical company focused on obesity and cardiometabolic diseases, with a successful offer, worth up to $10 billion.

Pfizer announced on November 13, 2025, that it had completed its acquisition of all the outstanding shares of common stock of Metsera for $65.60 per share in cash, representing an enterprise value of approximately $7.0 billion, plus a contingent value right of up to $20.65 per share in potential additional payments tied to the achievement of three specified clinical and regulatory milestones. Metsera is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Pfizer.

The closing of the deal ended a nearly two-month battle between Pfizer and Novo Nordisk in vying to acquire Metsera in move to boost their positions in the obesity drug market. Novo Nordisk confirmed in a November 8, 2025, press statement that it would not be increasing its offer for Metsera following three offers to acquire the company, with the first made on October 30 followed by two revised offers made on November 4 and November 6. Novo Nordisk made its unsolicited bids to acquire Metsera following an initial merger agreement between Pfizer and Metsera announced on September 30. That precipitated a bidding war between Novo Nordisk and Pfizer for Metsera as well as a legal battle by Pfizer, which challenged the legality of Metsera to consider other offers in light of its initial merger agreement with Pfizer.

Having won the bidding war, with the acquisition of Metsera, Pfizer gains both late-stage and early-stage assets: MET-097i, a weekly and monthly injectable GLP-1 receptor agonist (RA) about to begin Phase III development; MET-233i, a monthly amylin analog candidate being evaluated as a monotherapy and in combination with MET-097i in Phase I development; an oral GLP-1 RA candidate in Phase I development; and additional preclinical nutrient-stimulated hormone therapeutics. Pfizer’s move to acquire Metsera followed recent setbacks in its in-house drug candidates for obesity. Pfizer discontinued development of two GLP-1 RAs: lotiglipron in 2023 and danuglipron in April of 2025.

For its part, Novo Nordisk’s now unsuccessful move to acquire Metsera leaves the company with a growth strategy still focused on diabetes and obesity as it navigates increased competition from its blockbuster drugs, Ozempic/Wegovy (semaglutide), respectively for treating Type 2 diabetes and obesity, and as it seeks to gain traction for its next-generation products. In September (September 2025), Novo Nordisk announced a company-wide restructuring to reduce its global workforce by approximately 9,000 positions, a reduction of 11.5%. The restructuring was the first major move by Novo Nordisk’s new President and CEO Mike Doustdar, who took over the helm at the company in early August (August 2025), succeeding then CEO and President Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen, who had announced in May (May 2025) that he would be stepping down.

Source: Pfizer and Novo Nordisk