Danish drugmaker Novo goes public with 2.6b euro bid for Belgium's Ablynx

Hong Kong

DANISH drugmaker Novo Nordisk A/S made its largest takeover offer ever, an unsolicited 2.6 billion euro (S$4.15 billion) bid for Belgium's Ablynx NV, to beef up its lesser known blood-disorder unit and rekindle growth.

The offer for Ablynx signals a higher appetite for deals at the world's biggest maker of diabetes medicines. A year after taking the reins, chief executive officer Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen is looking to expand beyond the field of diabetes and gain medicines that command high prices because they target rare diseases. One Ablynx treatment called caplacizumab is poised for approval this year for an unusual disorder in which blood clots form in small vessels throughout the body.