By coinnews 
00:00 Speaker A
Novo Nordisk agreeing to a deal with US biotech firm Cepturna to develop oral pills to treat obesity. Yahoo Finance senior health reporter Anjalee Khemlani joins us now with more. So, how does this fit into the existing portfolio at Novo?
00:18 Anjalee Khemlani
This actually is part of a series of deals that Novo seems to be interested in because pills are seen as the next frontier for the hot obesity market. So this 2.2 billion deal builds on another deal most recently in March that Novo announced that was 1.75 billion. So you can see that price range about similar there for those deals. Cepturna specifically having four candidates that it’s looking at and those platforms looking to come to market early stage right now. So Cepturna is sort of in charge of leading those through the early stage where they figure out what the dosing is, and then Novo would take over after that. That fits into what Novo Nordisk is looking at, which is its own pipeline having some candidates, but questions about whether or not they can come to market quick enough. They do have an application in for a pill version of Wegovy that the FDA is set to look at and decide on by the end of the year. Meanwhile, we know this also lines up with competition with Lilly, which has its own pill that seems to be further along and potentially the first to market. That looking to be in the market by next year. So really the obesity market heating up in terms of the pill space and this is why Novo is pursuing those deals.