NOVO Nordisk’s largest shareholder plans to invest as much as US$7 billion a year by 2030, buoyed by the success of the Danish drugmaker’s blockbusters for obesity and diabetes, the Financial Times reported. 

Novo Holdings, which controls 77 per cent of the votes in Europe’s most valuable company, expects the rising income to allow it to invest US$5 billion annually in the next five years and US$7 billion thereafter, the FT said, citing an interview with CEO Kasim Kutay.

The fund grabbed the spotlight earlier this month by agreeing to buy Catalent, one of the world’s largest drug-manufacturing companies, for US$16.5 billion. Part of the deal will help Novo Nordisk build up its supply chain to meet booming demand for its obesity drug Wegovy, since it will pay US$11 billion to get three of Catalent’s factories.

Novo, whose shares have gained 72 per cent in the past 12 months, is now the biggest publicly traded company in Europe with a market value of more than US$540 billion. 

Novo Holdings is owned by the philanthropic Novo Nordisk Foundation, and is responsible for managing the foundation’s assets. Its new ambitions reflect the fact that “we have more money than ever to invest”, Kutay told the FT.  BLOOMBERG