Novo Nordisk Partnership Rockets Stock 181% Overnight—Time to Buy the Hype?
Biotech stock explodes after landing blockbuster Novo Nordisk deal—surging 181% in single session trading.
The Partnership Payoff
One strategic handshake with pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk sent this company's valuation soaring into the stratosphere. Markets reacted with explosive momentum—catapulting share prices to unprecedented heights overnight.
Investor Frenzy Meets Reality Check
While the percentage gains look spectacular on paper, seasoned traders know triple-digit moves often come with volatility whiplash. The real question isn't whether the stock moved—but whether it can sustain altitude once the deal euphoria settles.
Because nothing says 'stable investment' like a stock that moves more in one day than most blue-chips do in a decade. Welcome to biotech roulette.
Image source: Getty Images.
Reasons to buy Omeros stock now
If zaltenibart succeeds in clinical trials, earns approval, and becomes a successful commercial-stage product, Omeros is eligible to receive up to $2.1 billion in milestone payments from Novo Nordisk. Despite the big run-up, Omeros' market cap at midday on Oct. 15 was just under $700 million. That seems like a very low valuation for a company about to receive $340 million in cash.
Zaltenibart, which targets a protein called MASP-3, is not the most advanced new drug candidate in Omeros' development pipeline. The company's lead candidate, narsoplimab, is an experimental MASP-2 inhibitor with an application currently under review by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Omeros is developing narsoplimab for the treatment of stem cell transplant-associated thrombotic microangiopathy (HSCT-TMA). The FDA issued a complete response letter to the company in 2021 regarding its first application to treat HSCT-TMA. According to Omeros, the agency had difficulty estimating the treatment effect and asked for additional data.
Last December, Omeros provided more data regarding narsoplimab and HSCT-TMA patients, and the FDA is taking a second look. The agency was expected to announce its decision by Sept. 25, 2025. In August, the FDA pushed the date we can expect a decision announcement back to Dec. 26, 2025.
Omeros signaled a licensing deal for OMS906 could be coming soon when it reported second-quarter results in August. At the time, management said an upcoming deal for zaltenibart was the most advanced of multiple asset sale discussions.
Reasons to be cautious about Omeros' stock now
When the FDA said it wanted more data in 2021, the agency most likely wanted the company to run a new study with a randomized control group. Instead, Omeros compared the overall survival data from 28 patients it treated with narsoplimab in the OMS721-TMA-001 study against a group of similar patients who were not enrolled in the trial.
While the HSCT-TMA results Omeros sent the FDA made narsoplimab appear effective, I'll be very surprised if the agency approves an application supported by data from an external control group.
Unfortunately, approval to treat stem cell transplant recipients could be narsoplimab's last chance to become a commercial-stage drug. In 2023, it failed to reduce signs of kidney damage for patients with a different autoimmune disorder in a pivotal trial.
Omeros finished June with just $28.7 million in cash and short-term investments after burning through $58.9 million during the first half of 2025. A cash injection from Novo Nordisk will help it pay down some debts and keep the lights on for over a year.
With narsoplimab's future highly uncertain, nearly all of Omeros' value is tied up in zaltenibart. While there's a chance it could succeed in a phase 3 trial and lead to a huge milestone payment from Novo Nordisk, this is a heavy risk most investors should not feel comfortable with. If your risk tolerance level isn't sky high, it's probably best to leave this stock on a watch list instead of in a portfolio.
