Shares of Swedish drug-delivery company Nanexa (NANEXA) more than doubled in value on Friday morning after the company announced a major licensing agreement with Novo Nordisk worth up to €1.17 billion ($1.33 billion) — a deal that hands the pharmaceutical group exclusive rights to Nanexa's PharmaShell drug-delivery technology.

The agreement was revealed after U.S. market hours closed on Thursday. Nanexa's stock jumped more than 120% in early Friday trading, hitting its highest level in more than five years. As of 0723 GMT, shares were trading up around 122%, and trading volume spiked as investors rushed to react to the announcement. Novo Nordisk stock, meanwhile, was up a modest 1% following the news.

Deal Centers on PharmaShell Technology

The agreement centers on Nanex's PharmaShell platform, a drug-delivery technology that uses an ultra-thin coating applied to individual drug particles. The coating is deposited using atomic layer deposition, a thin-film technique long used in semiconductor manufacturing, and it helps control how a drug releases into the body over time — in effect, a slow-release mechanism built at a microscopic level. That particle-level control is what underpins the long-acting injectable formulations the partnership is designed to produce.

Under the terms of the deal, Novo Nordisk now holds exclusive worldwide rights to use PharmaShell in up to five development programs. The focus is on obesity, type 2 diabetes, and other cardiometabolic conditions.

The two companies are aiming to create long-acting injectable formulations, with the goal of allowing monthly or quarterly dosing instead of the weekly injections that are common in this space today — including Novo Nordisk's own blockbuster treatments Ozempic and Wegovy, which patients currently inject once a week. Fewer injections could mean easier treatment routines for patients managing chronic conditions, where keeping up with a regular injection schedule over years of therapy is a recognized challenge — the pitch behind the partnership.

Novo Nordisk will lead all global development and commercialization efforts tied to the deal. Nanexa's role centers on the underlying technology itself.

Payment Breakdown

Of the total €1.17 billion, €615 million — just over half the headline value — comes from upfront payments plus development and regulatory milestones. The rest, roughly €555 million, is linked to future sales milestones.

Nanexa will also collect royalties on global net sales for any products that come out of the collaboration. Those royalties sit in the low single-digit percentage range, meaning ongoing revenue for Nanexa if Novo Nordisk successfully brings products from the partnership to market.

It is a structure common in pharmaceutical licensing deals: the smaller partner receives guaranteed cash upfront, then a smaller ongoing cut if the drugs actually reach the market and sell. For Nanexa, it also means the headline figure is contingent by design: only the upfront slice of the €615 million tranche is guaranteed, with the remainder of the deal's value dependent on Novo Nordisk hitting development, regulatory, and sales targets across its programs.

In its press release announcing the agreement, Nanexa described the partnership as combining its atomic layer deposition drug-delivery platform with Novo Nordisk's experience in obesity and diabetes treatments.

References: Reuters report on the deal, NANEXA.ST quote on Yahoo Finance. Source: CoinCentral.