Novo Holdings completes acquisition of Ellab

Novo Holdings announced in June this year that it had agreed to acquire Ellab from EQT Private Equity. All relevant authorities have now approved the transaction, and the acquisition has been completed. It has also been agreed that Anders Hedegaard will become the new Chairman of the Group Board. In addition, Novo Holdings has entered into a separate agreement to sell a significant minority stake in Ellab to the Lundbeck Foundation.

Anders Hedegaard has been appointed Chairman based on his many years of experience within the life science industry. His roles have included being CEO of GN Store Nord and GN Hearing, President and CEO of Bavarian Nordic A/S and CEO of Rodenstock. He has also been Chair of the Board of ALK for several years.

“We are very much looking forward to working with Anders Hedegaard and welcoming him to the Group Board. Anders has a wide-ranging background with in-depth knowledge of the pharmaceutical industry, CEO and board experience with both privately owned and listed companies,” said Henrik Kjær Hansen, Senior Partner, Principal Investments at Novo Holdings.

Anders Hedegaard said: “Ellab is a very exciting company with a key role within the pharmaceutical industry. I am therefore very much looking forward to taking up the new post and to collaborating with Ellab’s management and Group Board. Further, I am delighted that both Novo Holdings and the Lundbeck Foundation will be part of the ownership group, and I am sure that both will provide a very solid foundation for Ellab’s future growth.”

Like Novo Holdings, the Lundbeck Foundation specialises in investments within the life sciences and has announced that it has entered into an agreement with Novo Holdings on acquiring a minority stake in Ellab and thus becoming part of the company’s ownership group together with Novo Holdings.

Arne Due-Hansen, Senior Vice President, Strategic Investments, Lundbeck Foundation said: “In partnership with Novo Holdings, we look forward to further developing the exciting growth journey Ellab is on. This medtech company will provide even more breadth to our strategic portfolio of healthcare companies and represents a clear step towards our long-term ambition of developing companies based in Denmark into global leaders in their field.”

The Lundbeck Foundation’s investment in Ellab is subject to relevant regulatory approvals.

Ellab serves all the top 20 biotechnology companies and all the top 40 pharmaceutical companies globally, helping them to ensure consumer safety and regulatory compliance while reducing time to market and the risk of product loss.

Read more about Novo Holdings’ acquisition of Ellab here.

About Novo Holdings A/S
Novo Holdings is a holding and investment company that is responsible for managing the assets and the wealth of the Novo Nordisk Foundation. The purpose of Novo Holdings is to improve people’s health and the sustainability of society and the planet by generating attractive long-term returns on the assets of the Novo Nordisk Foundation.
Wholly owned by the Novo Nordisk Foundation, Novo Holdings is the controlling shareholder of Novo Nordisk A/S and Novozymes A/S and manages an investment portfolio with a long-term return perspective. In addition to managing a broad portfolio of equities, bonds, real estate, infrastructure and private equity assets, Novo Holdings is a world-leading life sciences investor. Through its Seeds, Venture, Growth, and Principal Investments teams, Novo Holdings invests in life science companies at all stages of development.

As of year-end 2022, Novo Holdings had total assets of EUR 108 billion. Read more at www.novoholdings.dk

About the Novo Nordisk Foundation
Established in Denmark in 1924, the Novo Nordisk Foundation is an enterprise foundation with philanthropic objectives. The vision of the Foundation is to improve people’s health and the sustainability of society and the planet. The Foundation’s mission is to progress research and innovation in the prevention and treatment of cardiometabolic and infectious diseases as well as to advance knowledge and solutions to support a green transformation of society.
https://novonordiskfonden.dk/en