Latest news with #LarsJorgensen
Business Mayor
17-05-2025
- Business
- Business Mayor
Novo Nordisk ousts CEO as Wegovy maker faces growing competition
Global Economy May 16, 2025 Novo Nordisk CEO Lars Jorgensen testifies before a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing on U.S. prices for the weight loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., September 24, 2024. Piroschka Van De Wouw | Reuters Novo Nordisk said Friday that CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen is stepping down as the Wegovy maker seeks to revive its ailing fortunes amid increasing competition. The Danish pharmaceutical giant said Jørgensen, who was at the helm for eight years, would remain in his post 'for a period to support a smooth transition to new leadership.' It added that the search for a successor was ongoing and an announcement would be made in due course. Novo Nordisk shares closed 1.8% lower Friday. Meanwhile, shares of rival obesity drug maker Eli Lilly were 1.7% higher following the announcement. The decision comes as Novo Nordisk's stock price has taken a battering over the past year amid increased competition in the ballooning obesity drug market and disappointing trial results for its next-generation treatments. The company's share price is currently down by more than 50% since the middle of 2024. Board Chairman Helge Lund said discussions to replace Jørgensen had been ongoing for the past several weeks between Novo Nordisk and the Novo Nordisk Foundation, which controls the firm, according to Reuters. Reuters separately reported Jørgensen as telling Danish broadcaster TV2 that he was only informed very recently and that he did not see the decision coming. 'Novo Nordisk's strategy remains unchanged, and the Board is confident in the company's current business plans and its ability to execute on the plans,' Lund said in a statement announcing the decision. 'The changes are, however, made in light of the recent market challenges Novo Nordisk has been facing, and the development of the company's share price since mid-2024,' the company said in a statement. In connection with the change, the company said that Lars Rebien Sørensen, former Novo CEO and current chair of the Novo Nordisk Foundation, will join Novo Nordisk's board, initially as an observer. Novo last week reported lower-than-expected first-quarter sales of its flagship Wegovy obesity drug and trimmed its full-year sales growth forecast amid increased competition from compounded drug markets in the U.S. 'Compounders took a part of our business away,' Jørgensen told CNBC's Charlotte Reed. The company nevertheless said that it expected sales to improve in the second half of the year as the availability of copycat compounded drugs is phased out after the Food and Drug Administration ended its drug shortage ruling. Novo has meanwhile struggled to shake negative sentiment following a series of disappointing trial results for its next-generation obesity drug candidate CagriSema. Jørgensen previously said he was 'very optimistic' about the prospects for the treatment. 'From the data we have, CagriSema is the best product that has been tested out or is on the market, and we believe we can get those data even better.' READ SOURCE
Daily Mail
16-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Ozempic boss axed in battle of the fat jabs
The boss of Ozempic maker Novo Nordisk lost his job yesterday after its share price plunged amid intensifying competition in the multi-billion pound fat jab market. Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen is being forced out after the Danish firm's board came under pressure from the foundation that controls the company. The shake-up follows Novo's leading position in the fat jab market – estimated to be worth more than £110billion by the next decade – coming under threat. The company, best known for its Wegovy and Ozempic brands, faces stiff competition from US rival Eli Lilly, which makes Zepbound, marketed in Britain as Mounjaro. Mounjaro has become known as the 'King Kong' of slimming jabs, leading to increasing fears that Eli Lilly will overtake Novo. Jorgensen, 58, expressed shock at the decision to fire him, adding: 'I did not see this coming.' Tough at the top: Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen is being forced out His departure comes after eight years in charge that have seen Novo's sales, profit and share price almost triple as it became the world's leader in fat jabs. The company temporarily became Europe's most valuable. It was worth around £460billion last June but the share price performance has since deteriorated sharply and it is now valued at less than half that – at about £166billion. Novo said Jorgensen was being axed due to 'recent market challenges [the firm] has been facing and the development of the company's share price since mid-2024'. The board – led by BP chairman Helge Lund – has come under pressure from the Novo Nordisk Foundation, which controls the majority of voting rights in the company. Jorgensen will stay on as boss 'for a period to support a smooth transition to new leadership'. The move comes after new weekly prescriptions for Eli Lilly's Zepbound drug overtook those of Novo's Wegovy in the US, its biggest market, for the first time in March. Earlier this month, Novo cut its 2025 sales and profit forecasts for the first time since the launch of Wegovy four years ago. Danske Bank's Carsten Lonborg Madsen said: 'It just feels like there's something that has gone pretty wrong here.' But analysts at JP Morgan said yesterday: 'We believe this reflects decisive action from the Novo Nordisk Foundation.'
Fast Company
16-05-2025
- Business
- Fast Company
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.
Free Malaysia Today
16-05-2025
- Business
- Free Malaysia Today
Obesity drug maker Novo Nordisk ousts CEO as competition weighs
Novo Nordisk's share price fell on the news, trading 3% lower by 11.33am after trading 4% higher earlier in the day.(EPA Images pic) COPENHAGEN : Wegovy-maker Novo Nordisk said today its CEO Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen will step down over concerns the company is losing its first-mover advantage in the highly competitive obesity drug market. Under Jorgensen's leadership, Novo Nordisk became a world leader in the weight-loss drug market, with sky-rocketing sales of its Wegovy and Ozempic treatments which propelled its share price to become Europe's most valuable listed company. However, its shares have plunged since hitting a record-high in June last year as competition, particularly from US rival Eli Lilly, makes inroads into its market share and as its pipeline of new drugs has failed to impress investors. 'The changes are made in light of the recent market challenges Novo Nordisk has been facing, and the development of the company's share price since mid-2024,' Novo said in a statement. Eli Lilly's US prescriptions for its Zepbound obesity shot have surpassed Wegovy since mid-March in its biggest market. 'Jorgensen, 58, who has been CEO since 2017, will remain in the role until a new CEO has been appointed,' the company said. 'Former CEO of Novo Nordisk for 16 years and current chair of the Novo Nordisk Foundation, Lars Rebien Sorensen, will join the board as an observer with immediate effect with the aim of taking a seat at the next annual general meeting,' Novo said. Novo Nordisk is controlled by the Novo Nordisk Foundation through its investment arm which owns 77% of the voting shares. 'Considering the recent market challenges, the share price decline, and the wish from the Novo Nordisk Foundation, the Novo Nordisk Board and Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen have jointly concluded that initiating a CEO succession is in the best interest of the company and its shareholders,' Novo Nordisk said. Novo Nordisk's share price fell on the news, trading 3% lower by 11.33am after trading 4% higher earlier in the day. The shares are down 32% year-to-date and 59% from the all-time high in June last year.
Al Jazeera
16-05-2025
- Business
- Al Jazeera
In surprise move Wegovy-maker Novo Nordisk ousts CEO amid sagging sales
Wegovy-maker Novo Nordisk has pushed out CEO Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen over concerns the company is losing its first-mover advantage in the highly competitive obesity drug market. Novo Nordisk announced the decision on Friday. Days earlier, Novo Nordisk cut its sales and profit forecast for the first time since the launch of Wegovy four years ago, though Jorgensen had predicted a return to growth in its biggest market in the second half of this year. Novo's chairman, Helge Lund, tried to reassure analysts and investors on a call that the company's strategy was intact and the plan for executing it had not changed. He told the Reuters news agency that discussions to replace Jorgensen had occurred over the past few weeks. Novo said earlier that Jorgensen will remain in his role until a successor is found. Under Jorgensen's leadership, Novo Nordisk became a world leader in the weight-loss drug market, with skyrocketing sales of its Wegovy and Ozempic treatments. Analysts and investors were unconvinced of the need to replace him. 'He was leading the company for eight years and was, in my opinion, extremely successful,' Lukas Leu, a portfolio manager at Bellevue Asset Management, told Reuters. Danske Bank analyst Carsten Lonborg Madsen was similarly caught off guard. 'The way we know Novo Nordisk is that normally you have patience when you're on the right track, and then you let things move in the right direction once you have the strategy right,' he said. 'It just feels like there's something that has gone pretty wrong here,' he said on the call. Novo's shares have plunged since hitting a record high in June last year as competition, particularly from US rival Eli Lilly, makes inroads into its market share and as its pipeline of new drugs has failed to impress investors. 'The changes are made in light of the recent market challenges Novo Nordisk has been facing, and the development of the company's share price since mid-2024,' Novo said in its statement. Jorgensen, at 58, has been CEO since 2017. He said in an interview with Danish broadcaster TV2 that he did not see the decision coming, and was only informed very recently. Booming sales of Wegovy helped make Novo the most valuable listed company in Europe, worth $615bn at its peak in June last year, but its market value has halved to about $310bn. Novo Nordisk's share price fell on the news, trading 0.8 percent lower by 14:01 GMT after being 4 percent higher earlier in the day. The shares are down 32 percent year-to-date and 59 percent from their all-time high. Eli Lilly has seen US prescriptions for its Zepbound obesity shot surpass Wegovy since mid-March in its biggest market. Eli Lilly shares were up 2.6 percent after the news. Camilla Sylvest, Novo's head of commercial strategy and corporate affairs and a consistent presence alongside CEO Jorgensen, stepped down last month without citing a reason. Former CEO of Novo Nordisk for 16 years and current chair of the Novo Nordisk Foundation, Lars Rebien Sorensen, will join the board as an observer with immediate effect with the aim of taking a seat at the next annual general meeting, Novo said. The company is controlled by the Novo Nordisk Foundation through its investment arm, which owns 77 percent of the voting shares.
