Pfizer files second lawsuit against Novo Nordisk and Metsera
A Pfizer logo is displayed at a research facility in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego, California, USA, on September 30, 2025.
Mike Blake | Reuters
Pfizer On Monday it announced that it had filed a second lawsuit against it Novo Nordisk And Meseraalleging that the Danish drugmaker’s attempt to outbid Pfizer to acquire the obesity biotech company was anti-competitive.
According to the lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Delaware, Pfizer claims that Ozempic maker Novo Nordisk’s proposed acquisition of Metsera would help maintain its dominance in the blockbuster obesity market by eliminating a smaller potential competitor. The lawsuit also alleges that Metsera’s majority shareholders colluded with the obesity biotech company and Novo Nordisk.
In a statement on Monday, Ambre James Brown, vice president of global media at Novo Nordisk, said: “Pfizer’s baseless claims that Novo Nordisk intends to stifle innovation through our offering are false and unfounded.”
“Rather than compete on price, Pfizer took the most unusual and seemingly desperate approach in filing its antitrust lawsuit today,” Brown said. She added that Novo Nordisk’s offer, including the structure of the transaction, complies with all applicable laws and is in the “best interests” of patients and Metsera shareholders.
In a statement, Metsera said: “Pfizer is attempting to obtain, through litigation, the purchase of Metsera at a lower price than Novo Nordisk.” The company added that Pfizer’s arguments in the litigation “are nonsense and Metsera will address them in court.”
The new lawsuit intensifies the heated dispute between Pfizer and Novo Nordisk over Metsera, whose obesity pipeline could spawn new competitors in the booming weight-loss drug market. Pfizer said in September it would acquire Metsera for $4.9 billion, or up to $7.3 billion with future payments, a deal that could be the company’s golden ticket into the market after it struggled to bring its own anti-obesity products to market.
But Novo Nordisk launched a takeover bid on Thursday that valued the biotech company at about $6 billion, giving Pfizer a four-business-day deadline to renegotiate its offer. On Friday, Pfizer filed its first lawsuit against Novo Nordisk and Metsera, seeking to prevent the biotech company from terminating its existing merger agreement with Pfizer.
This lawsuit, filed in the Delaware Court of Chancery, alleges that Novo Nordisk’s offer cannot be considered a superior offer because it is not reasonably likely to be completed due to its significant regulatory risk.
Novo Nordisk helped build the market for weight-loss drugs, bringing to market highly effective GLP-1 drugs, including the diabetes injection Ozempic and the obesity injection Wegovy. But the company has lost its leading market position to its main competitor. Eli Lillylast year and has struggled to impress investors with its pipeline.
