LONDON, May 15 (Reuters) - Novo Holdings, the

controlling shareholder of Danish obesity drugmaker Novo Nordisk

, said on Wednesday it would buy a controlling stake

of about 60% in Single Use Support, an Austria-based life

science tools company.

It declined to give a precise value for the deal but a

spokesperson said it would be a "high triple-digit million

euros" amount.

Single Use Support's two founders will each retain 10% and

U.S. life sciences firm Danaher ( DHR ) will retain 20%.

CONTEXT

Novo Holdings is the investment arm of the Novo Nordisk

Foundation and has 77% of voting shares in Novo Nordisk, which

produces blockbuster obesity drug Wegovy and diabetes treatment

Ozempic.

Novo Holdings CEO Kasim Kutay told Reuters in October that

the huge Wegovy windfall would increase the size of deals it

would do in healthcare, particularly for well-established

life-science companies.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT

Novo Holdings said the acquisition was part of its focus on

companies that provide services to the pharmaceuticals industry.

In February, Novo Holdings said it would buy Catalent ( CTLT )

, a large U.S.-based contract drugmaker that helps make

Wegovy, for $16.5 billion.

Single Use Support, founded in 2017, makes equipment and

consumables to support the production of drugs, in particular

biologic medicines, cell and gene therapies, and mRNA vaccines.

KEY QUOTE

Single Use Support "got a huge boost" from business from

Moderna ( MRNA ) during the COVID-19 pandemic, Johan Hueffer,

senior partner in principal investments at Novo Holdings told

Reuters.

"They've been growing like a weed and we think there's a lot

more runway to go because they have a very good product," he

said.

"Our aim is to help them take that product to further

customers in Europe but also more globally, and we've got the

sort of footprint to help."

Novo Nordisk does not currently use Single Use Support

products for its manufacturing of Wegovy, he said.

($1 = 6.8954 Danish crowns)