Exclusive: Novo Nordisk bets on India as Ozempic drives $43 billion global surge

Riding on a surge in global demand for its patented obesity and diabetes medicines Ozempic, Wegovy and Rybelsus, Denmark-based global healthcare major Novo Nordisk registered 26% growth in global sales to end 2024 with annual revenue of $43 billion. In an exclusive interaction with Fortune India, Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen, President and CEO, Novo Nordisk, tells how the company is focusing on key therapeutic areas to sustain growth and how important is India for Novo Nordisk.

Excerpts:

In 2024, Novo Nordisk served more than 45.2 million people living with serious chronic diseases, even as the company’s global sales and operating profit both grew by 26% at constant exchange rates. How to sustain this growth?

As the base grows larger, it becomes harder to sustain the growth percentage. But in absolute terms, we have been growing for the last couple of years. When I look at the number of patients we serve, it’s still a small fraction of the overall patient population. And when we look at the innovation we have, and what is coming out, we have an attractive opportunity to stay in the game. So there is a sustained growth opportunity. It's probably fair to say that the relative growth in terms of percentage will be coming down, but there are continued opportunities for growth.

There is an unprecedented demand for your GLP-1-based medicines centered on the molecule semaglutide and sold under brands  - Ozempic, Wegovy and Rybelsus - for the treatment of obesity and diabetes. What is the most exciting thing happening in the obesity and diabetes segments?

It is the consumer nature of obesity (treatment). We have a more than 100-year history of being a pharmaceutical company convincing doctors to use our products and then they convincing their patients to use, say insulin. But with the category of products we are working on now, there is a consumer dimension to it. Consumers will ask for the products from physicians and we increasingly have to figure out how we relate to the patient as a consumer. That is the biggest change for us and also links to our scaling and investments in capacity because of the market pull.

The US which contributes over 50% of Novo Nordisk’s $43 billion annual revenues, is your biggest market. How do you find US President Donald Trump’s policies – especially the ones on import tariffs, sustainability, DEI (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion) impacting your business prospects in that country?

There is a very large unmet need in the US with many patients. There is a huge need for medicines. We invest in the US, we create jobs, we have more than 10,000 people working there and we have five manufacturing sites. So we are strongly committed to driving both health and economic activity in the US. And it’s really linked (to the fact) that we are an innovation-based company. If we have to be creative, and innovative, we need to be inclusive, where each and every person can bring great ideas to the table. Inclusivity is rooted in our Scandinavian culture where we treat everybody with respect. And that’s really what defines our approach. I don’t think that is in contrast with what the US Administration is saying. We have strategic aspirations for our sustainability and DEI goals, and I don’t think we need to go back on our company agenda in any way, which is one of innovation, creativity and fuelled by including different perspectives.

In addition to geopolitical tensions, global conflicts, companies also find technological advancements as one of the factors making their operating environment more complex. How does Novo Nordisk keep pace with it?

As an innovation-based company we need to make sure that we are open for new technologies on one hand, and on the other, also double down and get a deep enough understanding. If you scratch the surface on everything, you are not going to have a winning proposition. As a global company we need to go deep in the disease areas we focus on and the list of technologies that we want to master. We are striving to accelerate the discovery of new targets and optimise our clinical trials through our deep understanding of proteins and peptides, AI-driven drug discovery and the acquisition of new technology platforms. We have built lot of AI capabilities that we can leverage especially in areas of R&D. All employees also have access to AI to work smarter and that drives efficiency.

While Rybelsus as a pill is approved for diabetes treatment for diabetes, your weight loss medicine Wegovy is not yet available in India. How important is India for Novo Nordisk?

India is important both from a commercial point of view and also from an access to talent point of view. We have in Bengaluru a very large shared services centre. Many key functions of Novo Nordisk are carried out here. It is not just business process outsourcing, it is integrated in the value chain and full development activities are done in India. I meet a lot of colleagues from India here in Denmark who have developed their careers and taken on postings at our headquarters. So, India is important both as a large market and also as an enabler of talent growth.

Do you have manufacturing plans for India?

Our manufacturing partnership with (Ahmedabad based) Torrent is working very well and we are pleased with that. We are not looking to change that in the near term. We do clinical development in India, and we have a number of other partnerships, but there no plans of starting our own manufacturing in India. There are obviously a lot of manufacturing capabilities in India so I will not rule it out, but it's not on the table right now.