It Introduced Ozempic to the World. Now It Must Remake Itself.
Jorgensen is CEO of Novo Nordisk, a Danish drugmaker. Even if the company isn’t quite a household name, the TV jingle for its bestselling drug — “Oh-oh-ohhh-Ozempic!” — might ring in your ears. Across the United States, Novo Nordisk’s diabetes and weight-loss drugs, Ozempic and Wegovy, have soared to celebrity status and helped make the company Europe’s most valuable public firm. It can’t make enough of the drugs.
Jorgensen’s problem is one many top executives wouldn’t mind, but the success caught him off guard. Last year, when the company was celebrating its centenary, Novo Nordisk’s revenue jumped by one-third, to 232 billion Danish kroner ($33 billion).
“Nobody had forecast this growth — no analyst, nobody in the company,” Jorgensen said in a recent interview at the company’s headquarters in a suburb of Copenhagen. “Nobody forecast a 100-year-old company would grow more than 30%,” he said, seemingly torn between pride and amazement.
For most of its 100 years, Novo Nordisk has been focused on the steady business of treating diabetes, one of the world’s most prevalent chronic diseases. Even today, it produces half of the world’s insulin. But the development of Ozempic and Wegovy has led to a bigger and bolder ambition to “defeat serious chronic diseases.” That includes treating, and even, preventing obesity, which is linked to other health issues such as heart and kidney diseases.
