New Deal Between Emisphere Technologies Inc. (EMIS) and Novo Nordisk A/S (ADR) (NVO)

On October 15, Emisphere Technologies Inc. (OTCMKTS:EMIS) announced an agreement with Novo Nordisk A/S (ADR) (NYSE:NVO) to develop and market oral formulations of four classes of the Danish company’s investigational molecules targeting metabolic disorders such as diabetes and obesity by utilizing Emisphere’s oral Eligen Technology. Let’s not forget to mention that Mark Rachesky’s MHR Fund Management LLC owns 81.18 million shares of Emisphere Technologies, which account for a whopping 65.8% of the company’s common stock.

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The aforementioned deal stipulates that Emisphere licensed to Novo Nordisk the exclusive right to develop product candidates in three of the four molecule classes and the non-exclusive right in the remaining one using its technology. Under the terms of the agreement, Emisphere is set to receive $5.0 million as an upfront licensing fee, but can also collect up to $62.5 million in development and sales milestone payments for each of the exclusively-licensed molecule classes and up to $20 million for the remaining molecule class. In addition, Emisphere will receive royalties on potential sales of the “soon-to-be” commercialized products. Ultimately, the two parties also amended their existing license agreement for Novo Nordisk’s GLP-1 analogue semaglutide. As a result, Emisphere Technologies Inc. (OTCMKTS:EMIS) will receive a payment of $9.0 million in exchange for a reduction in future royalty payments.

Let’s turn the page, where you can take a look at the hedge fund sentiment on Novo Nordisk and at other developments at the company.

Just recently, Novo Nordisk A/S (ADR) (NYSE:NVO) received Food and Drug Administration approval for Tresiba and Ryzodeg, two injectable insulin drugs. Tresibal had been previously rejected by the U.S. FDA over heart-safety concerns and requested a study that would investigate its cardiovascular effects. At this point in time, Tresiba is commercialized in approximately 30 countries and is expected to provide annual sales of $2.4 billion by 2020. At the same time, the drug is set to be launched during the first quarter of 2016. Meanwhile, the shares of Novo Nordisk have advanced by more than 30% since the beginning of the year, after gaining over 3% in today’s trading session.

In the meantime, 18 hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey had long positions in the Danish pharma company at the end of the second quarter, compared to 15 registered in the previous one. By the same token, the value of the money invested in the stock increased to $1.90 billion from $1.76 billion quarter-over-quarter. The hedge funds monitored by our team own 1.30% of the company’s outstanding shares as of June 30. Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies and Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management are the top shareholders of Novo Nordisk A/S (ADR) (NYSE:NVO) within our database. The former owns 14.09 million shares as of June 30, while the latter holds 12.30 million shares.

Disclosure: None