Novo Nordisk acquires Forma Therapeutics for $1.1 billion

Novo Nordisk announced on Sept. 1, 2022 that it would acquire Forma Therapeutics for $1.1 billion, a deal that brought the sickle cell disease candidate etavopivat into Novo's pipeline and expanded its work in rare blood disorders.

The purchase sits outside the business most American patients associate with the Danish drugmaker. Novo Nordisk is headquartered in Bagsværd, Denmark, and makes and markets pharmaceutical products and devices "primarily diabetes and obesity medications," including the semaglutide products Ozempic and Wegovy and the liraglutide products Saxenda and Victoza ^[1].

Blood disorders are not new territory for the company, though. Novo Nordisk's product list also includes NovoSeven and NovoEight, treatments used in bleeding disorders, alongside its insulins such as Levemir, Tresiba, NovoRapid and Fiasp ^[1]. The Forma deal deepened that side of the portfolio at a moment when the company's obesity and diabetes franchise was expanding quickly.

Several specifics have not been disclosed here: the structure of the payment, whether any portion depended on future milestones, the closing date, and which regulators had to sign off. The stage of etavopivat's clinical testing, the trials planned after the acquisition, and any target date for a US filing have not been reported. Pricing and availability for etavopivat, if it is ever approved, are also not known.

Novo Nordisk is controlled by Novo Holdings A/S, which is wholly owned by the Novo Nordisk Foundation and holds about 28.1% of the company's shares and 77.1% of its voting shares ^[1]. That ownership structure gives the company unusual latitude to make long-horizon bets that may not pay off for years. The company markets its products in 168 countries and employs tens of thousands of people worldwide ^[1].

Why it matters for patients

For people taking or considering semaglutide, a $1.1 billion acquisition in sickle cell disease does not change anything about their prescription. It does not alter the label, the dosing, the supply or the insurance coverage of Ozempic, Wegovy or Rybelsus. The relevance is indirect but real: it shows how the cash generated by diabetes and obesity drugs gets redeployed.

Novo Nordisk's reported financials give a sense of that scale. The company reported revenue of 309.1 billion Danish kroner, operating income of 127.7 billion kroner and net income of 102.4 billion kroner for 2025, with total assets of 542.9 billion kroner ^[1]. Net sales in 2024 were US$42.121 billion ^[1]. Against those numbers, a $1.1 billion deal is a modest outlay, which is one reason acquisitions like this rarely affect the day-to-day supply of existing products.

The second thing patients can take from the deal is a reminder that pipeline purchases are bets, not products. Buying a candidate like etavopivat does not mean it works or that it will be approved. Experimental drugs fail at every stage of testing, and a large buyer can accelerate development without changing that risk.

For the sickle cell community in the US, the practical question is whether a company of Novo Nordisk's size funds larger and faster trials than a smaller biotech could. That outcome depends on decisions and trial results that were not settled at the time of the announcement.

What happens next

No public timeline for etavopivat's development, regulatory submissions or possible approval was attached to the announcement, and none has been reported here. Investors and patients typically learn about that kind of progress through the company's quarterly results and pipeline updates, and through trial readouts as they are published.

Anyone weighing a GLP-1 medication should discuss it with a licensed clinician; corporate deal news is not a signal about whether a specific treatment is right for an individual.