Novo Nordisk announced Monday morning that it has entered into exclusive negotiations to buy French device maker Biocorp.

The Danish pharma giant is seeking to acquire a controlling stake in the company from majority shareholder Bio Jag for around $165 million. This represents a nearly 20% premium on Biocorp’s closing marketing price on June 2.

Biocorp develops and manufactures drug delivery systems and medical devices, including most notably the Mallya, a Bluetooth-enabled smart add-on device for pen injectors.

The two organizations have worked together since 2021 on developing and commercializing a Mallya add-on device for Novo’s FlexTouch pen, which is used by patients living with diabetes. The partnership expanded in 2022 and 2023 to cover other therapy areas.

“We have enjoyed a fruitful collaboration with Biocorp over the past couple of years, and we hope to be able to welcome the company and its highly skilled workers into Novo Nordisk to complement our in-house efforts within connected delivery solutions and accelerate our ambitions within devices and delivery solutions,” Marianne Ølholm, Novo’s SVP of devices and delivery solutions, said in a statement. 

Biocorp’s CEO added that the company is “delighted” by the potential to join Novo and see its capabilities scale up to meet additional health needs globally.

In a press release, Novo said minority shareholders who account for 19% of the share capital and just over 13% of theoretical voting rights for Biocorp have committed to transferring their shares to Novo upon completion of the deal.

If completed, there would be a mandatory squeeze-out of remaining shareholders and Biocorp would be delisted from trading.

The acquisition has already received unanimous approval from Biocorp’s board of directors but would still be subject to customary closing conditions. Novo said it expects the purchase to take place in Q3 2023.

This is the latest move for Novo, which entered into a collaboration, development and license agreement with Aspect Biosystems worth up to $2.6 billion in mid-April.

Then, late last month, ElevateBio’s subsidiary Life Edit Therapeutics announced that it has signed a multi-target collaboration with Novo, making it eligible to receive potential milestone payments between $250 million and $335 million for each of the seven programs featured.