Novo Nordisk announces CEO transition as share price slips
Novo Nordisk announced Friday that it would part ways with its longtime CEO, who steered the company into an unprecedented boom time for weight loss drugs.
The Ozempic maker's chief executive Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen first joined the company as an economist in 1991. Jorgensen has served as Novo Nordisk's CEO since 2017, leading the company before the current gold rush in weight loss drug development was imaginable.
In a press release announcing the move, Novo Nordisk cited market challenges and its declining share price in a press release announcing the leadership shake up. Jorgensen will stay on as CEO temporarily for an undetermined period of time 'to support a smooth transition' as the company looks for his replacement.
Novo Nordisk's value more than quintupled between 2017 and 2024, but the company's shares have fallen sharply since late last year, weighed down by big pharma rivals catching up and the proliferation of compounding pharmacies handing out affordable knockoffs of its signature drugs amid supply shortages.
First out of the gate but struggling to stay ahead
As a 100-year old company focused on treating diabetes since day one, Novo Nordisk initially enjoyed a first mover advantage – but that edge has faded.
Novo Nordisk's semaglutide drug is a class of drugs known as a GLP-1 agonist, which simulates a hormone that would naturally be released during digestion. Novo's semaglutide drug, marketed as Ozempic, was originally developed to treat type 2 diabetes. In 2021, the FDA approved Wegovy, a version of Novo's medication designed for weight loss and the first drug in that category to be approved since 2014.
Novo Nordisk's American competitor Eli Lilly made up ground quickly, securing FDA approval for its diabetes drug Mounjaro and its weight management counterpart Zepbound in 2022 and 2023, respectively. Eli Lilly shares have soared since those drugs started hitting the market, showing no sign of flagging.
Jørgensen was well aware that Novo Nordisk would need to push an aggressive pace of drug development to stay ahead. In late 2023, the company announced that it would buy a startup developing weight management drugs for $1.07 billion, just one massive deal in a flurry of acquisitions meant to shore up its defenses.
A drug for everything
To stay ahead, Novo Nordisk is pushing its semaglutide treatments into other areas of medicine. 'Cardiologists started being interested in GLP-1s,' Jørgensen told Fast Company in 2023. 'The whole medical understanding of the link between obesity and diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and all of these cardiometabolic diseases is being understood now.'
Last year, the FDA approved Wegovy to reduce the risk of heart disease and in January Ozempic got the green light for treating kidney disease. For semaglutide drugs, and their counterparts from rival companies, osteoarthritis, Alzheimer's, liver disease and even addiction are all in play in the race to the next big thing. This week, the company announced a $2.2 billion partnership with Bay Area biotech startup Septerna to develop a pill form of its weight loss and diabetes drugs.
Novo Nordisk characterized Jørgensen's departure as a mutual agreement but noted that the change was the 'wish' of the Novo Nordisk Foundation, an independent nonprofit that controls the company – an ownership structure that is common among large Danish businesses. The foundation is designed to steer leadership from a long-term perspective and also doles out large scientific grants on topics ranging from endocrinology to climate-adapted soil.
Lars Rebien Sørensen, who chairs the Novo Nordisk Foundation, will join its board as an observer while the company seeks a new CEO. Sørensen is expected to be nominated for a seat on the board during an annual meeting in 2026.
'We think of course in delivering here and now, but equally we think in decades forward,' Jørgensen told Fast Company in 2023, describing the foundation's role.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Bloomberg
44 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
Yacht Builder to the World's Super-Rich Caught Up in Spy Claims
In early April 2024, Xu Xinyu, an executive director at Ferretti SpA, noticed an SUV and two strange men lingering outside the elegant 18th century palace that houses the Italian luxury yacht maker's Milan offices. On other days, during visits to the Palazzo Parigi Hotel and the Mandarin Oriental, Xu noticed the same individuals again. Soon, he had become convinced he was being followed, according to people familiar with the situation, who requested anonymity in order to discuss confidential matters. Xu, who also sat on the board of Ferretti's majority owners, the Chinese industrial conglomerate Weichai Group, engaged a counter-surveillance firm. During its first sweep on the night of April 3, the security company found a listening device and signal amplifier hidden on Xu's desk. In the offices of the board secretary and the company's Chinese-Italian translator, they uncovered other devices concealed in power outlets. Ferretti confirmed in a statement in response to Bloomberg News inquiries that surveillance devices had been found on its premises.
Bloomberg
44 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
HSBC's Desk Shortage Prompts Bank to Eye New Canary Wharf Office
By , Jack Sidders, and Natasha Voase Save HSBC Holdings Plc is in talks to lease several floors near its current headquarters in London's Canary Wharf as the bank grapples with a looming shortfall of several thousand desks in the offices it's moving into next year. The bank has put in an offer to take all of the empty space at 40 Bank Street in Canary Wharf, people with knowledge of the discussions said, asking not to be identified discussing non-public information. The bank has also considered retaining some satellite offices it had planned to give up in order to address the shortage.
Forbes
an hour ago
- Forbes
Can Casey's Deliver In Its Next Earnings Report?
POLAND - 2025/01/13: In this photo illustration, the Casey`s General Stores company logo is seen ... More displayed on a smartphone screen. (Photo Illustration by Piotr Swat/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) Casey's General Stores (NASDAQ: CASY), a gas station and convenience store chain, is set to announce its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings (April year) on Monday, June 9, 2025, with analysts expecting earnings of $1.95 per share on $3.95 billion in revenue. This would reflect a 17% decrease in earnings year-over-year and a 10% rise in sales compared to the previous year's figures of $2.35 per share and $3.60 billion in revenue. Historically, the CASY stock has dipped 65% of the time after earnings announcements, with a median one-day decline of 2.9% and a maximum drop of 7%. During the third quarter, Casey's reported an 11% year-over-year rise in EBITDA and anticipated similar growth for the entire year. While net income remained unchanged, it would have increased by 15%, excluding one-off expenses from the $1.1 billion acquisition of Fikes Wholesale and its 198 stores. This performance underscores Casey's robust profitability amid the integration of one of its largest acquisitions ever. The company holds a market capitalization of $17 billion. Over the last twelve months, revenue reached $16 billion, and it was operationally profitable with $768 million in operating profits and a net income of $535 million. For event-driven traders, historical trends may provide an advantage, whether by positioning ahead of earnings or reacting to movements after the announcement. If you're looking for an upside with less volatility than that of individual stocks, the Trefis High Quality portfolio offers an alternative, having outperformed the S&P 500 and delivered returns over 91% since its inception. See earnings reaction history of all stocks. Here are some insights regarding one-day (1D) post-earnings returns: Further data for observed 5-Day (5D) and 21-Day (21D) returns post earnings are summarized along with the statistics in the table below. CASY 1D, 5D, and 21D Post Earnings Return A relatively low-risk strategy (though ineffective if the correlation is weak) is to understand the correlation between short-term and medium-term returns following earnings, identify a pair with the highest correlation, and execute the appropriate trade. For instance, if 1D and 5D exhibit the strongest correlation, a trader can position themselves 'long' for the next 5 days if the 1D post-earnings return is positive. Below is some correlation data based on a 5-year and 3-year (more recent) history. Note that the correlation 1D_5D pertains to the relationship between 1D post-earnings returns and the subsequent 5D returns. CASY Correlation Between 1D, 5D and 21D Historical Returns Discover more about the Trefis RV strategy that has outperformed its all-cap stocks benchmark (a combination of all 3: the S&P 500, S&P mid-cap, and Russell 2000), delivering strong returns for investors.
