Novo Nordisk, the maker of common weight-loss medicine Ozempic and Wegovy, introduced it’s shedding about 9,000 employees in an effort to “streamline operations.”
The corporate made the announcement on Wednesday, saying it deliberate to chop 11 per cent of its international workforce with the expectation it’ll see C$1.7 billion in financial savings by the top of 2026. The corporate has 78,400 staff.
Workers affected will likely be contacted by the corporate over the following few months, in response to the corporate.
Mike Doustdar, president and CEO of Novo Nordisk, mentioned in a information launch that the shift was wanted due to how the markets for weight-loss medicine are “evolving.”
“Our markets are evolving, notably in weight problems, because it has turn out to be extra aggressive and consumer-driven,” Doustdar mentioned. “Our firm should evolve as properly. This implies instilling an elevated performance-based tradition, deploying our sources extra successfully, and prioritising funding the place it’ll have probably the most impression – behind our main remedy areas.”
Novo Nordisk has confronted rising competitors, with U.S.-based Eli Lilly overtaking the Danish firm within the weight problems and diabetes markets.
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Eli Lilly’s Zepbound overtook Wegovy in weekly prescriptions within the U.S. earlier this yr, although Wegovy’s prescriptions started to extend shortly over the summer season, narrowing that lead.
However the firm has additionally confronted a wave of compounded copycat medicine.
Amid the competitors, Novo Nordisk is now attempting to spice up output whereas assembly rising demand for its product and getting ready for the discharge of the capsule type of Wegovy.
“That is the brand new CEO’s first main transfer to simplify Novo’s construction and redirect sources towards development in diabetes and weight problems,” mentioned Michael Novod, head of fairness analysis for Denmark at Nordea Financial institution.
Doustdar instructed Danish media in a name this week that the corporate plans to reinvest the financial savings from layoffs into its drug pipeline and weight problems launches in new markets, pointing to the rising prices of a business technique that features promoting its medicine by way of client platforms resembling telehealth to be extra aggressive.
In its information launch, Novo Nordisk mentioned the layoffs could be companywide, together with impacts to its employees areas and headquarters.
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