(Reuters) – Novo Holdings, the controlling shareholder of Danish obesity drugmaker Novo Nordisk, plans to invest up to $7 billion annually by 2030, the Financial Times reported on Monday.
Kasim Kutay, chief executive of Novo Holdings, told the newspaper that income from its 28% stake in Novo Nordisk and other investments would give the fund $5 billion a year to invest in the next five years.
“We’ve got an ever growing investment portfolio that’s generating very attractive returns,” FT quoted Kutay as saying.
“That’s going to keep on growing, then we’ve got obviously the growth of . . . Ozempic and Wegovy and a lot of dividends . . . we have more money than ever to invest,” he said.
Novo Holdings has 77% of voting shares in Novo Nordisk, the maker of blockbuster obesity drug Wegovy and diabetes treatment Ozempic.
The move comes soon after Novo Holdings, the investment arm of Novo’s controlling shareholder, the Novo Nordisk Foundation, last week said it would buy Catalent, a key manufacturing subcontractor, for $16.5 billion.
Novo Holdings did not immediately respond to a request for comment asking where it would invest the funds.
(Reporting by Mrinmay Dey in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman and Sonia Cheema)
