Obesity drugmaker Novo Nordisk picks Maziar Mike Doustdar as new CEO
The appointment comes after the abrupt removal in May of CEO Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen by Novo (NOVOb.CO), opens new tab and the Novo Nordisk Foundation - the Danish company's controlling shareholder, and follows a growth warning earlier on Tuesday.
Doustdar, who joined Novo in 1992, currently serves as vice president for international operations, a role he took after leading the company's businesses first in the Middle East and then in Southeast Asia, Novo said.
The new chief executive's most urgent challenge, according to investors and analysts, is to revive Novo's performance in the United States, the largest market by far for weight-loss drugs and where they are most profitable.
Novo launched its weight-loss drug Wegovy nearly two and a half years before U.S rival Eli Lilly's Zepbound. But Zepbound prescriptions surpassed those of Wegovy this year by more than 100,000 a week.
The appointment comes at a challenging time for the global pharmaceutical industry as U.S. President Donald Trump threatens to impose tariffs on imports and calls on drugmakers to lower their U.S. prescription prices.
Jorgensen led Novo through a period of meteoric growth as it led the weight-loss drug boom, becoming Europe's most valuable listed company following the launch of Wegovy in 2021. At its peak in June 2024 Novo was worth as much as $615 billion.
But Novo shares have plunged since then on investor concerns about the company's experimental drug pipeline and its ability to navigate challenges in the U.S. market, such as the threat to its sales from compounded copies of Wegovy and Lilly's Zepbound.
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