Novo Nordisk

History

1922-1925

In 1922, August Krogh, a professor at the University of Copenhagen, went on a lecture tour to North America after receiving the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. During this tour, Krogh and his wife Marie visited Toronto where the scientists Frederick Banting, Charles Best and John Macleod had just succeeded in manufacturing active insulin. Krogh received permission to manufacture insulin in the Nordic countries and joined forces with Hans Christian Hagedorn, a physician specialising in diabetes, to start the production of insulin in Denmark. This led to the establishment of Nordisk Insulinlaboratorium company in 1923.

In 1925, brothers Harald and Thorvald Pedersen, who were former employees of Nordisk, formed their own company, Novo Terapeutisk Laboratorium. Novo and Nordisk competed until they merged in 1989 to become Novo Nordisk A/S.

1982–1994

The company established its presence in the United States in 1982 and Canada in 1984.

In 1989, Novo Industri A/S (Novo Terapeutisk Laboratorium) and Nordisk Gentofte A/S (Nordisk Insulinlaboratorium) merged to become Novo Nordisk A/S, the world's largest producer of insulin with headquarters in Bagsværd, Copenhagen.

In 1991, Novo Nordisk Engineering (now NNE A/S) demerged after working as in-house consultants at Novo Nordisk for years, to provide standard engineering services (end-to-end engineering) to pharma manufacturing companies.

In 1994, Novo Nordisk's existing information technology units was spun out as NNIT A/S. The company was converted into a wholly owned aktieselskab in 2004 In March 2015, NNIT was floated on the Nasdaq Nordic.

2000–2018

Novo's enzymes business, Novozymes A/S, was spun-out in 2000.

Novo acquired Xellia for $700 million in 2013.

The same year, Novo Nordisk USA moved into new headquarters offices in Plainsboro Township, New Jersey, by way of extensively renovating abandoned premises. This action served to consolidate several facilities that the company had previously had in Plainsboro.

In 2015, the company announced it would collaborate with Ablynx, using its nanobody technology to develop at least one new drug candidate.

In January 2018, Reuters reported that Novo had offered to acquire Ablynx for $3.1 billion - having made an unreported offer in mid-December for the company. However, the Ablynx board rejected this offer the same day, explaining that the price undervalued the business. Ultimately Novo lost out to Sanofi who bid $4.8 billion. Later, in the same year, the company announced it would acquire Ziylo for around $800 million.

2020–present

In March 2020, Novo volunteers started testing samples for SARS-CoV-2 with RT-qPCR equipment in the ongoing coronavirus pandemic to increase available test capacity. In June, the business announced it would acquire AstraZeneca's cardiovascular disease-focused spin-off Corvidia Therapeutics for an initial sum of $725 million (up to a performance-related maximum of $2.1 billion). In November, the company announced it would acquire Emisphere Technologies for $1.8 billion, gaining control of a pill-based treatment for diabetes. Novo then announced in December that it would acquire Emisphere Technologies for $1.35 billion.

In November 2021, Novo announced it would acquire Dicerna Pharmaceuticals and its RNAi therapeutics, for $3.3 billion ($38.25 per share).

In September 2022, Novo agreed to acquire Forma Therapeutics for $1.1 billion with the intent to expand its sickle cell disease and rare blood disorders portfolio.

By 2022 the popularity of Novo's Wegovy and Ozempic for weight loss was so great as to significantly increase the growth of the entire economy of Denmark. Two-thirds of Denmark's overall economic growth in 2022 was attributed to the pharmaceutical industry. The company's profits increased by 45% year over year in the first half of 2023. Most of the growth occurred from its weight loss drugs, Wegovy and Ozempic, which accounted for 55% of the company's 2023 revenue.

In August 2023, Novo agreed to acquire the Montreal-headquartered pharmaceutical company, Inversago Pharma for $1 billion and Embark Biotech for up to $500 million. In October 2023, the company announced it would acquire ocedurenone—an experimental drug for uncontrolled hypertension and potentially beneficial in treating cardiovascular and kidney diseases—from KBP Biosciences for $1.3 billion. After a failed clinical trial the following year, Novo Nordisk initiated legal action against KBP alleging that the company misrepresented the drug's effectiveness by concealing unfavorable clinical trial data. Seeking up to $830 million in damages, the Singapore International Commercial Court granted Novo Nordisk's request for a freeze on KBP's assets and those of its founder, Huang Zhenhua.

In November 2023, Novo Nordisk announced investment of €2.1 billion in a French production facility to increase the production capacity and manufacturing of its popular anti-obesity medication.

In February 2024, parent company Novo Holdings A/S agreed to acquire Catalent for $16.5billion. On completion, Novo Nordisk said it would acquire three manufacturing facilities from its parent for $11billion to scale up production to meet the massive demand for Wegovy and Ozempic.

In March 2024, Novo Nordisk reached a $604 billion market capitalization and became the 12th most valuable company in the world. The company's stock jumped to a record high after early trial data showed positive results for its new experimental weight loss pill amycretin. The company also announced it would acquire Cardior Pharmaceuticals and its cardiovascular disease portfolio for up to $1.1 billion.

As of April 2024, the flow of cash from Novo Nordisk's weight-loss drugs was continuing to solidify its status as the most valuable company in Europe, to the point that economists were worried that Denmark might come down with Dutch disease (that is, a country that does only one thing well and nothing else). The company's market capitalization of $570 billion remained larger than the entire economy of Denmark, its $2.3 billion income tax bill for 2023 made it the largest taxpayer in the country, and its rapid growth was driving nearly all of the expansion of Denmark's economy. The company had started to move away from its traditional focus on diabetes care towards a more ambitious mission to "defeat serious chronic diseases", and towards that end, hired over 10,000 people in 2023 alone. To effectively manage the rapid expansion of its workforce while maintaining its traditional corporate culture, the Novo Nordisk Way, the company put over 400 senior executives through a leadership development program called NNX, which stands for Novo Nordisk Next.

In May 2024, the company announced it would acquire Austrian fluid management service business, Single Use Support.

In June 2024, the company announced plans to build a new production plant in Clayton, North Carolina, at a cost of $4.1 billion. It will be the company's fourth in the state of North Carolina and used for production of semaglutide products Ozempic and Wegovy. The company also announced plans to acquire three US-based Catalent sites in to increase production supply.

As of October 2024, Novo Nordisk was the second most valuable drug company in the world by market capitalization, second only to its competitor Eli Lilly and Company. By July 2025, Novo Nordisk had fallen to become the fifth most valuable drug company amid rising competition from generic weight loss substitutes. The company named Maziar Mike Doustdar as the new CEO, effective August 7, 2025.

In March 2025, the company announced new plans for a direct-to-consumer offering of its Wegovy weight loss drug. The company established a new pharmacy, called NovoCare, which would charge customers $499 per month for access to the drug, less than half the cost of the drug through other pharmaceutical distribution networks.

In September 2025, Novo Nordisk announced that it would reduce its global workforce by 9,000 people, approximately 9% of its total workforce.

In October 2025, Novo Nordisk acquired Akero Therapeutics for $5.2 billion. Akero Therapeutics is a clinical stage company focusing on the treatment of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH).

In 2026, new obesity GLP-1 pills were launched, with patients getting their hands on them from Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk.

Toxicogenomics

Novo Nordisk is involved in government funded collaborative research projects with other industrial and governmental partners. One example in the area of non-clinical safety assessment is the InnoMed PredTox. The company is expanding its activities in joint research projects within the framework of the Innovative Medicines Initiative of European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations and the European Commission.

Research and pipeline

In 2025, Novo Nordisk tested whether semaglutide helped slow progression for Alzheimer’s disease. However, on Nov. 24, 2025, the company announced that the studies failed to find any effect of the drug on cognition and functioning in people with mild cognitive impairment or with dementia.

Novo Nordisk was researching pulmonary delivery systems for diabetic medications, and in the early stages of research into autoimmune and chronic inflammatory diseases, using technologies such as translational immunology and monoclonal antibodies. In September 2014, the company announced a decision to discontinue all research in inflammatory disorders, including the discontinuation of R&D in anti-IL-20 for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.

In September 2018, it was reported that the company would lay off 400 administrative staff, laboratory technicians and scientists, in Denmark and China in order to concentrate research and development efforts on “transformational biological and technological innovation”.

Controversies

In 2010, Novo Nordisk breached the code of conduct for Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI), by failing to provide information about side-effects of Victoza and by promoting Victoza prior to being granted market authorisation.

In 2013, Novo Nordisk had to pay back billion to the Danish tax authorities due to transfer mispricing.

In March 2013, a debate emerged in which scientists questioned whether the incretin class of diabetic medications – the class to which Victoza belongs – had an increased risk of side effects in the pancreas such as pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer. It was concluded that data currently available did not confirm these concerns.

In October 2013, batches of NovoMix 30 FlexPen and Penfill insulin were recalled in some European countries as their analysis had shown that a small percentage of the products in these batches did not meet the specifications for insulin strength.

In September 2017, Novo Nordisk agreed to pay $58.7 million to end a United States Department of Justice probe into the lack of FDA disclosure to doctors about the cancer risk for their diabetic drug, Victoza.

In March 2023, Novo Nordisk was suspended from the ABPI for a period of two years, for engaging in misleading marketing practices that amounted to "bribing health professionals with inducement to prescribe". This is only the eighth time in the last 40 years that ABPI sanctioned a member organization. Consequently, the Royal College of General Practitioners and the Royal College of Physicians ended their corporate partnerships as it would be in breach of their ethical guidance. The Novo Nordisk UK General Manager, Pinder Sahota, chose to resign as President of the ABPI prior to the suspension.

In February 2024, the United States Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation ordered that 55 lawsuits pending in federal courts be consolidated into a multidistrict litigation. The majority of the cases were against Novo Nordisk, but some were brought against Eli Lilly. As of August 2024 there were 235 active Ozempic lawsuits.

In 2024 Novo Nordisk drug pricing in the US has been a target of lawmakers, including Senator Bernie Sanders and the Senate committee Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP). The committee investigation found Novo Nordisk's drug Ozempic priced for $969 per month in the US, compared to $155 in Canada and $59 in Germany. Its weight-loss drug Wegovy is priced for $1,349 per month in the US compared to $140 in Germany and $92 in the UK. In July 2024, US President Joe Biden joined Sanders in stating "Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly must stop ripping off Americans with high drug prices."

In September 2024, CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen was summoned to testify to the US Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee at a hearing in Washington DC. During the hearing Senator Bernie Sanders told the Novo Nordisk CEO, "Stop Ripping Us Off."

In 2025, the Irish Health Products Regulatory Authority identified several non-compliances relating to advertising rules in educational and training materials in 2021 and 2022. A May 2021 teaching guide did not feature statements on adverse reactions, precautions and contraindications, while materials in November 2021 and April 2022 were unbalanced and promotional in nature, and consideration was not given to the appropriateness of hiring a trainer to carry out consultations with patients during a pilot training course.

Public image

Novo Nordisk has sponsored athletes with diabetes, such as Charlie Kimball in auto racing and Team Novo Nordisk in road cycling.

Corporate affairs

Finances

For the fiscal year 2024, Novo Nordisk reported earnings of DKK 101 billion (around 14.5 billion USD), with an annual revenue of DKK 290.4 billion (around 42.1 billion USD), an increase of 25% over the previous fiscal cycle.

Ownership

Novo Nordisk shares are mostly owned by institutional investors and Novo Holdings A/S. The largest shareholders in 2025 were:

• Novo Holdings A/S (28.1%)
• BlackRock (4.1%)
• The Vanguard Group (2.9%)
• Norges Bank (1.8%)

Board of directors

, the company's board consisted of the following directors:

• Helge Lund, Chairman of Novo Nordisk
• Henrik Poulsen, Vice chair of the Board of Director
• Elisabeth Dahl Christensen
• Laurence Debroux
• Andreas Fibig
• Sylvie Grégoire
• Liselotte Hyveled
• Mette Bøjer Jensen
• Kasim Kutay
• Christina Law
• Martin Mackay
• Thomas Rantzau

References

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