Pharma stock soars 150% on injectables deal with Wegovy maker Novo
Shares in Swedish microcap stock Nanexa more than doubled early Friday after the drug-delivery group revealed a $1.33 billion licensing deal with pharma giant Novo Nordisk.
Nanexa, which trades on the Nasdaq First North Growth Market in Stockholm, said after the closing bell on Thursday it had penned a global licensing agreement covering Novo's long-acting injectable drugs for obesity, type 2 diabetes and other cardiometabolic issues.
Its shares soared more than 150% at the open in Stockholm before settling back to a gain of around 114% by 11:50 a.m. local time. It leaves the stock roughly 12% short of its all-time high in November 2015.
The deal grants Eli Lilly competitor Novo, which makes Wegovy and Ozempic, exclusive rights for up to five development programs to use Nanexa's PharmaShell tech, which applies an ultra-thin inorganic coating on drug particles to control their release over time.
The groups are targeting monthly and quarterly administration of the drugs.
Nanexa is eligible to receive an upfront payment worth around $700 million and potential milestone payments for development and regulatory achievements. The agreement provides for low single-digit royalties on future product sales.
The group reported full-year revenues of approximately $3.89 million for 2025, representing a 48.4% increase on the previous year.
"With this agreement, Nanexa enters a new era of considerable financial strength, allowing us to significantly expand applications of our unique [atomic layer deposition] technology to other therapeutic areas and giving us an opportunity to build a sustainable long-term business," said Nanexa chair Gรถran Ando.
David Westburg, Nanexa CEO, said the agreement "provides a strong foundation for expanding PharmaShell into additional therapeutic areas and to selectively advance additional internal programs towards clinical proof of concept, allowing us to capture greater value from the breadth of the PharmaShell platform."
