As Novo Nordisk cuts 9,000 people from its organization in a restructuring effort, BioSpace looks back on the Danish pharma company’s rise.
Novo Nordisk’s head count has grown 81% in five years, as the Danish pharma became a powerhouse in obesity care. But just as quickly as the company’s prospects have risen, they have fallen amid stiff competition from rival Eli Lilly and pressure from compounding pharmacies creating knockoffs of its semaglutide products.
Over the same period, Novo’s revenue has risen 126%, reaching a peak of $13.5 billion in the fourth quarter of 2024. That trend reversed at the beginning of this year, with revenue landing at $12.1 billion in the second quarter.
On Wednesday, new CEO Maziar Mike Doustdar announced a 9,000-person headcount reduction as part of a larger structural reorganization. The cuts will take Novo’s full-time headcount from more than 78,000 to just over 69,000. Through 2026, the pharma projects $1.25 billion in annualized savings from the restructuring.
BMO Capital Markets said in a Wednesday morning note that the reduction amounts to about 11% of Novo’s staff. The bulk of the impacted employees will be in Denmark, where about 5,000 people will be affected. The firm said Novo informed its analysts that “the company has gotten too complex and must be simplified.”
Read More: A Compounding Problem: How GLP-1s Drove Novo Nordisk’s Rapid Rise and Fall
