All assets of biotech founder in Novo Nordisk suit frozen, including US$218 million in DBS account

PHARMA giant Novo Nordisk has been granted an injunction by the Singapore International Commercial Court to freeze the worldwide assets of KBP Biosciences founder Huang Zhenhua to the tune of US$830 million.

The Danish drugmaker was led to believe that KBP had “developed a new and effective drug to treat hypertension and kidney disease”, based on a Feb 14 ruling the court made public this week.  

Novo bought the drug, called ocedurenone, from closely held KBP Biosciences for US$1.3 billion in late 2023. Less than a year later, it halted a clinical trial because the treatment was not working. Novo has since announced an impairment loss of about US$800 million. 

There is a real risk of the assets being put out of reach of Novo’s suit, said Justice Philip Jeyaretnam in his judgement. Transfers of US$339.1 million from KBP to its holding company, as well as US$578.5 million paid out in dividends, show that Huang had the intention to move assets out of Novo’s reach in anticipation of a claim.

“There is no clear commercial rationale for these actions,” said Jeyaretnam.

Other assets frozen include assets in Singapore, such as KBP’s fixed deposit account with DBS of US$218 million as at Dec 31, 2023, and Huang’s Sennett Estate property worth US$7 million at the time of purchase.

This injunction is in support of an ongoing suit in New York over claims that Novo has been misled over the effectiveness of KBP Biosciences’ hypertension drug. The suit alleges that Huang, as founder of KBP, knew that the company failed to disclose material information, including interim analyses of Phase 2 clinical trial results showing ocedurenone’s inefficacy.

There was also no information disclosed concerning the quality and compliance issues at a single test site that produced anomalous positive results.

Justice Jeyaretnam added: “Dr Huang arguably knew and participated in these misrepresentations. He was the founder, executive chairman and a 40-per-cent shareholder of KBP.”

A check of KBP’s website shows that in Singapore, it has an office in International Plaza, in Anson Road.