Novo Nordisk CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen. Photo credit: Novo Nordisk

Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk has reached a deal to acquire Corvidia Therapeutics, a Massachusetts-based biotech company that was spun off from US-based pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca. Novo Nordisk is acquiring Corvidia for an upfront payment of $725 million, plus conditional subsequent payments that’ll add up the acquisition price to $2.1 billion if all conditions are met.

The lion share of the acquisition proceeds will be pocketed by Sofinnova Partners, a Paris-based venture capital firm that was the sole seed financial investor in Corvidia in 2015 and has long remained the company’s largest shareholder. Sofinnova helped recruit most of Corvidia’s early management team and has played a key role in the company’s growth.

As a private company, Corvidia had raised about $86 million in equity funding. Save for Sofinnova, other investors in the company include French investment firm Andera (formerly Edmond de Rothschild), venture capital firm Venrock, and AstraZeneca. The sale of Corvidia scores a subsequent big win for the company’s co-founder, Michael Davidson, who previously co-founded Omthera Pharmaceuticals, a biotech company that AstraZeneca coughed up $443 million to acquire in 2013. Sofinnova Partners was also a lead investor in Omthera.

Corvidia is developing treatments targeted at cardiovascular diseases. The five-year-old company is currently running preclinical programs for some of its treatments. Novo Nordisk appears to be making a huge bet on Corvidia’s therapies being successful. Such huge bets aren’t actually uncommon in the world of biotechnology.