Novo Nordisk's owner supports an Italian fund to expand drug startups outside of Denmark.

      Novo Holdings, the investment firm that oversees Novo Nordisk and manages the wealth of the Novo Nordisk Foundation, is supporting a fund focused on Italian pharmaceutical startups, as reported by Bloomberg.

      This step continues a trend of the Danish investor channeling funds into life sciences centers far beyond Copenhagen, including European deep-tech initiatives in collaboration with the European Investment Fund and the NATO Innovation Fund. While Novo Holdings may not be as recognizable as Novo Nordisk, it is the organization that actually owns and directs the pharmaceutical company responsible for Ozempic and Wegovy.

      By the end of 2025, it reported total assets under management of DKK 694 billion, approximately €93 billion, a number worth noting given how frequently the older, larger figure is still cited. This amount decreased significantly from the €142 billion reported the previous year, a decline that Novo Holdings attributed primarily to the drop in Novo Nordisk’s share price following intensified competition with Eli Lilly in the obesity drug market. However, financial challenges at the parent company did not hinder the activities of its venture arm.

      Novo Holdings’ venture team invested around $749 million in startups during 2025 and participated in eighteen private venture funding rounds, more than any other company tracked by BioPharma Dive that year.

      Italy is a familiar market for the company, if not yet as a destination for venture investments, due to its acquisition of contract manufacturer Catalent in 2024. That acquisition provided Novo Nordisk with a fill-finish facility in Anagni, south of Rome, and since then, the Italian government has approved over €2 billion in additional investments there through 2029, along with creating approximately 800 new jobs. Although this relationship is manufacturing-focused rather than venture-oriented, it does give Novo Holdings an established presence that a new entry into the Italian biotech scene would lack.

      The broader European strategy of the venture arm has increasingly shifted towards acceleration hubs. The BioInnovation Institute, supported by the Novo Nordisk Foundation, is launching its CardioMetabolic Bridge programme, a roughly €60 million initiative to transition academic research on obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases into commercial startups. The first site opened in London in June, with Italy and Germany slated for future openings later this year.

      Details were not provided regarding whether the Italian fund constitutes a separate entity or is an extension of this programme. Competing European life sciences investors are charting their own paths: Thena Capital recently finalized a £45 million fund for medtech in the UK, while BioLamina from Stockholm obtained a €20 million EIB loan to further develop cell-therapy technology currently supplied to Novo Nordisk.

      Italy’s governmental bodies have been attempting to establish a domestic venture ecosystem for years, with CDP Venture Capital managing the country’s National Innovation Fund. A foreign anchor investor, with the financial strength of Novo Holdings, would significantly enhance an ecosystem that has struggled to achieve the funding scale seen in the UK, France, or the Nordics.

      Investors in Milan, such as Sofinnova Partners and Panakes Partners, have established a local track record, but neither operates at a comparable scale to that of Novo Holdings. Italy possesses substantial research output and clinical expertise that is not being transformed into startups at the same rate as in Boston, London, or even Copenhagen, and a well-capitalized anchor investor could help remedy this.

      Novo Holdings has previously pursued a similar strategy in Germany and the UK, leveraging its resources to attract co-investors who might otherwise avoid early-stage life sciences investments. This approach is not focused on supporting any particular Italian company but rather on developing the infrastructure, incubators, and transitional funding necessary to cultivate the next success in the field.

      The exact amount of the commitment remains unconfirmed, as does whether Novo Holdings will take on a formal board or advisory position; no additional public disclosures were available at the time of writing. Denmark’s leading pharmaceutical wealth continues to seek opportunities beyond its borders, and it seems Italy’s moment has finally come.