Hadean Ventures struck gold with acquisitions from Novo Nordisk

Acquisition

Europe’s most valued company, Novo Nordisk, recently bought one of the portfolio companies of the Norwegian venture fund Hadean.

Hadean Ventures was founded by doctor and investor Ingrid Teigland Akay in 2017. Now the Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk is buying up Cardior Pharmaceuticals, which Hadean has in the portfolio, for approximately NOK 12 billion, writes Finansavisen.

– We see this as yet another validation of our strategy. This is the third company in our portfolio that has been acquired by “big pharma”, after Themis was acquired by Merck/MSD and Emergence Therapeutics was acquired by Eli Lilly, says Akay to the newspaper.

Akay will not say how much of the company Hadean owned. Nevertheless, she reveals that they are very satisfied with the sale.

The portfolio company Cardior is German and works with the development of RNA-based therapy to prevent and treat heart diseases.

In total, Hadean manages approximately NOK 2.5 billion, divided between two funds with a total of 15 companies in the portfolio.

– In general, things are going very well for us during the day – there is a lot of activity, both in terms of new investments and the portfolio. The American market seems to be improving, and this has implications for the sector. Among other things, it was recently announced that our American portfolio company, Contineum Therapeutics, plans to do an IPO, and we have seen several IPOs so far this year, says Akay.