Advent to sell generic unit to PE firm GTCR for US$ 4.8 billion; Novo shapes up for obesity race by cutting 9,000 jobs

By PharmaCompass

2025-09-11

Impressions: 250

In this week’s news, Advent International has agreed to sell the Czech generic drugmaker Zentiva to private equity firm GTCR for US$ 4.8 billion. Novartis is set to acquire New York-based Tourmaline Bio for US$ 1.4 billion, thereby adding a late-stage cardiovascular therapy to its portfolio. Samsung Biologics has secured a US$ 1.3 billion manufacturing agreement with an undisclosed US drugmaker. And Hengrui Pharmaceuticals has licensed its phase 3 heart drug to Braveheart Bio in an over US$ 1 billion deal.

Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk is planning to cut 9,000 jobs and save US$ 1.3 billion annually, as it struggles to catch up with its arch rival Eli Lilly in the obesity drug market space.

In drug approvals, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Johnson & Johnson’s Inlexzo for high-risk bladder cancer patients, and expanded the approval for Takeda’s Vonvendi. The regulator has also flagged quality lapses at Indian drugmaker Sun Pharma’s Halol plant.

In clinical trials, Eli Lilly’s approved blood cancer med Jaypirca has shown strong results in a phase 3 blood cancer trial, advancing it as a potential first-line treatment option. And BioNTech and China’s Duality Biologics said their investigational breast cancer drug, trastuzumab pamirtecan, did better than Roche’s Kadcyla in a late-stage study.

GTCR to buy generic drugmaker Zentiva in US$ 4.8 billion deal

Private equity firm GTCR has agreed to buy Czech generic drugmaker Zentiva from Advent International in a deal valued at €4.1 billion (approximately US$ 4.8 billion), the Financial Times reported. Boston-based Advent had purchased Zentiva from Sanofi in 2018 for €1.9 billion (around US$ 2.18 billion) and is now exiting at more than double that value. Zentiva, headquartered in Prague, makes generic and over-the-counter medicines such as paracetamol and co-codamol. The deal comes just a week after private equity group CapVest bought a majority stake in rival Stada for €10 billion (US$ 11.7 billion), showing rising interest in Europe’s generics sector.

Permira looks to sell Cambrex: Private equity firm Permira is planning to sell Cambrex, a US-based contract drug manufacturer organization (CDMO), in a deal that could be worth up to US$ 4 billion, the Financial Times reported. Permira had bought Cambrex in 2019 for US$ 2.4 billion.

Novo shapes up for obesity race: cuts 9,000 jobs to save US$ 1.3 bn annually

Novo Nordisk, the Danish drugmaker that manufactures Ozempic and Wegovy (both semaglutide), will cut 9,000 jobs — or about 11 percent of its workforce — in its biggest restructuring ever. Of the total, about 5,000 cuts will be in Denmark, marking the country’s largest round of layoffs. The move is aimed at saving 8 billion Danish kroner (around US$ 1.3 billion) annually, which will be reinvested into drug development and sales. The shake-up comes as Novo struggles to catch up with Eli Lilly, which has overtaken it in the booming obesity drug market. Novo’s sales growth has slowed down and the company has issued three profit warnings in 2025.

Novartis to buy Tourmaline Bio for US$ 1.4 bn: Novartis will acquire Tourmaline Bio for US$ 1.4 billion. The boards of both companies have unanimously approved the deal, which is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2025.

FDA okays J&J’s bladder cancer drug Inlexzo; expands approval of Takeda’s Vonvendi

FDA has approved Johnson & Johnson’s Inlexzo (gemcitabine intravesical system), a new drug delivery system for patients with high-risk non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) who do not respond to a type of immunotherapy (known as Bacillus Calmette-Guérin therapy) and are ineligible or unwilling to undergo bladder removal surgery. Inlexzo slowly releases the chemotherapy drug gemcitabine inside the bladder. Inlexzo offers a less invasive alternative and is also being tested in other bladder cancer settings.

The regulator has also expanded the approval for Takeda’s Vonvendi (vonicog alfa), a treatment for a lifelong, inherited bleeding disorder known as von Willebrand disease (VWD). With the expanded approval, Vonvendi can now be used as a prophylaxis to reduce frequency of bleeding episodes in adults with VWD. It can also be used in children who suffer from VWD (for on-demand and preoperative management of bleeding).

Hengrui licenses its phase 3 heart drug to Braveheart; Samsung Biologics signs US$ 1.3 bn deal

Hengrui Pharmaceuticals has licensed its phase 3 drug HRS-1893 to Braveheart Bio, a Delaware-based startup founded in 2024.

Braveheart will hold exclusive rights to develop and commercialize HRS-1893, a therapy for obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (oHCM), outside mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. HRS-1893 reduces abnormal heart muscle contraction and helps prevent ventricular thickening in oHCM.

Under the terms of the agreement, Hengrui will receive US$ 65 million upfront from Braveheart Bio, along with US$ 10 million in additional near-term payments once the transfer of certain technologies has been completed.

Samsung Biologics’ US$ 1.3bn deal: Samsung Biologics has signed a 1.8 trillion won (US$ 1.3 billion) manufacturing agreement with an undisclosed US-based drugmaker. The contract, running through 2029, marks the company’s second-largest deal since it was founded in 2011.

Lilly’s Jaypirca shows strong results in first-line blood cancer trial

Eli Lilly said its blood cancer drug Jaypirca (pirtobrutinib) slowed disease progression in people with newly diagnosed chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) or small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL). The phase 3 study found that patients taking Jaypirca lived longer without their cancer getting worse compared to those on standard treatments.

Launches AI platform to support drug discovery: Eli Lilly has launched TuneLab, an artificial intelligence platform designed to speed up drug discovery. Lilly is now inviting early-stage biotechs to make use of its drug discovery models provided through this machine learning platform, which has been trained on years of Lilly’s research. Lilly has said the platform could lower costs, reduce animal testing, and accelerate development of new medicines.

BioNTech, DualityBio’s breast cancer med beats Roche’s Kadcyla in late trial

BioNTech and China’s Duality Biologics said their investigational breast cancer drug, trastuzumab pamirtecan, did better than Roche’s Kadcyla (ado-trastuzumab emtansine) in a late-stage study. The trial tested patients with advanced HER2-positive breast cancer who had already been treated with chemotherapy and Herceptin. The companies plan to seek approval in China.

FDA flags Sun Pharma’s Halol plant for quality lapses: FDA has classified Sun Pharma’s Halol plant in Gujarat (India) as Official Action Indicated (OAI) post an inspection from June 2 to 13. The site is already under import alert. Sun Pharma has said it will work with the FDA to fix the issues and ensure compliance.

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