Kalundborg, Denmark
On a ship off Kalundborg harbor, Martin Høgh Sørensen steers whereas his spouse, Karin, and associates Michael and Anne-Louise Eliasen tug and wind ropes to maneuver the sails.
The quartet have between them notched virtually 100 years of labor for the native pharmaceutical enterprise or its sister firm — the former reworking life on this small Danish metropolis.
Because, a number of years in the past, Novo Nordisk struck proverbial gold: The firm realized the energetic ingredient in its diabetes drug Ozempic prompted sufferers to lose substantial quantities of weight. Soon sufficient, its Kalundborg manufacturing unit started pumping out Wegovy, a drug accredited for weight reduction that makes use of the similar energetic ingredient.
“A lot of people from Kalundborg used to commute to Copenhagen,” Sørensen, 69, informed NCS. “Now it’s going the other way around.”
The ensuing worldwide clamor for Novo’s “wonder drugs” catapulted it to grow to be, in 2023, Europe’s most valuable company. Danske Bank, the nation’s largest financial institution, additionally credit the agency as sparing Denmark’s economic system from recession that yr.
Sørensen works for Novo Nordisk Engineering, an organization serving to to develop the Kalundborg manufacturing unit, a part of Novo’s mammoth $9.3 billon funding into the space since 2021. He is, “of course, a little proud” of his metropolis of fewer than 17,000 folks that now finds itself an unlikely focus of the world weight reduction revolution.
Still, revolutions hardly ever come straightforward. Novo’s share value has plunged by virtually three quarters since its peak in 2024 and has slipped down the ranking of Europe’s most respected firms. It has additionally introduced 1000’s of layoffs and expects gross sales and revenue to drop by as a lot as 12% over 2026.
So, what occurred? And what does it imply for modern-day boomtown Kalundborg?
Novo has “gone from having this unmatched capability… to now being quite exposed,” mentioned Michael Leuchten, a senior European pharma analysis analyst at Jefferies, an funding agency.
The firm is locked in a fierce rivalry with Eli Lilly, the American pharmaceutical large whose GLP-1 medicines – named after the appetite-suppressing hormone they mimic – outsold its personal for the first time final yr in the United States, in accordance with Jefferies.
In its first quarter outcomes revealed Wednesday, Novo mentioned that robust gross sales of its injectable Wegovy drug exterior the US had helped increase earnings. But the firm is bracing itself for an avalanche of cheaper generic variations of its drug as the patent defending its energetic ingredient, semaglutide, expires this yr in a number of international locations, together with India and China.
Chief Executive Mike Doustdar attributes Novo’s troubles to the “curse of leadership.” As the first mover in commercializing a preferred, efficient drug to deal with weight problems, Novo’s opponents had been in a position to be taught from its errors, he informed NCS.
“We were paving the way for everyone else,” Doustdar mentioned. A critical early error, he famous, was to not enhance doses in a few of its injectable pens to maximise the ensuing weight reduction.
Leuchten sees it in a different way, arguing that Novo cornered itself by relying an excessive amount of on semaglutide quite than diversifying its stockpile of energetic substances for its weight reduction medicine. That would make the agency much less weak to competitors as its patent expires in varied markets, he mentioned.
“What I disagree with is saying that because Novo made mistakes, others found it easier,” Leucthen informed NCS. “Novo got it wrong and didn’t learn from mistakes and was too slow to change course.”
This yr, Novo has launched Wegovy pens at greater doses and, crucially, launched an oral capsule model in the United States with a lot success (drugs are much less daunting for a lot of to take than injections). In its first quarter outcomes, Novo mentioned prescriptions for the capsule – which it manufactures in its amenities in North Carolina – have to this point hit greater than 2 million. According to report final month by Morgan Stanley, there are indicators the capsule is already increasing the market – that’s, clients aren’t simply these substituting pens for drugs, however many are GLP-1 newcomers.
Las Olsen, chief economist at Danske Bank, mentioned Novo has undertaken a mindset shift to do battle in the United States, its largest market. In Denmark, “it’s never had this profile of a big commercial company,” he informed NCS.
In February, Novo aired its first Super Bowl advert. Under stress from the Trump administration, it has agreed to slash drug prices for Americans paying money and supply Wegovy at discounted costs for Medicare — unlocking hundreds of thousands of potential sufferers enrolled in the authorities well being care program for senior residents. But decrease costs have additionally weighed on Novo’s earnings in its most essential market.
And Eli Lilly — which launched its personal GLP-1 capsule final month — stays the $900 billion-plus thorn in Novo’s facet.
In Kalundborg, café proprietor Shaun Gamble sensed the temper in town shift after Novo introduced mass layoffs in September.
“I also knew a few people who were laid off … it (was) quite dramatic,” he informed NCS from Café Costa Kalundborg, which overlooks the harbor. “But now a little bit more time has gone on, I think that feeling has settled down.”
Of the 9,000 roles Novo mentioned it will axe worldwide, 5,000 had been unfold throughout its websites in Denmark. Novo didn’t say what number of occurred in Kalundborg.
Gamble hopes the layoffs had been a “glitch” as Novo continues to develop its manufacturing unit in a spot accustomed to the peaks and troughs of trade. In the Sixties, the town manufactured Carmen Curlers — globally standard heated rollers for hairstyling — earlier than the arrival of the electrical curling iron helped drive the trade’s collapse.
Novo is in no hazard of that.
Still a $200 billion behemoth, the firm’s development has triggered an inflow of individuals to Kalundborg lately, boosting demand for housing and property costs together with it. Around 10,000 individuals work at the manufacturing unit both as workers or contractors, although many commute in from exterior the metropolis.
A raft of native companies, from development to electrical companies firms, have benefited from their proximity. Yet they’ve, at instances, struggled to rent sufficient workers as many desire to work at Novo, in accordance with Martin Damm, the mayor of Kalundborg municipality.
“I think we (would) have a poor life without Novo Nordisk,” Damm informed NCS.
Despite Novo’s setbacks, Kalundborg is constructing for the future. Damm mentioned greater than 1,000 houses are presently beneath development in addition to a freeway linking the metropolis to Copenhagen, mendacity about 60 miles west. Sales assistants and hair stylists inform Damm they’re talking English extra typically as their clientele turns into extra worldwide.
Back on Sørensen’s boat, beneath a waning spring solar, the longtime Kalundborg resident thinks Novo’s dominance has made at the very least one side of day by day life tougher. The firm, he mentioned, has hoovered up many native mechanics.
“It makes it difficult to have your car repaired,” he mentioned.