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Behind the Money

Ozempic’s unconventional origins

Behind the Money

Topher Forhecz

Markets, Investing, News, Banking, Finance, Business, Business News, Crypto

4.4350 Ratings

🗓️ 10 January 2024

⏱️ 22 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The runaway success of diabetes and weight-loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy have turned their maker, Novo Nordisk, into a juggernaut. Last year the Danish drugmaker claimed the title of Europe’s most valuable company. But the development of these drugs was a long, uphill battle.The FT’s global pharmaceutical editor Hannah Kuchler explains how the company’s unique ownership structure played a critical role in the company’s achievements and looks at the challenges ahead.  


Clips from CNBC, CBS, Reuters

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Subscribe and listen to Untold: The Retreat on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

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For further reading:

FT Person of the Year: Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen of Novo Nordisk

How anti-obesity drugs built the world’s largest charitable foundation

Obesity drugs: broadly good for investors, with some strictures

Covid-19 vaccine winners suffer reversal of fortune

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On X, follow Hannah Kuchler (@hannahkuchler) and Michela Tindera (@mtindera07), or follow Michela on LinkedIn for updates about the show and more. 


Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com



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Transcript

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It's November, and the FT's global pharmaceutical editor Hannah Kuchler is in Copenhagen.

0:38.0

She's visiting the headquarters of the drugmaker Novo Nordisk.

0:42.0

So this company is changing the world and I wanted to go to

0:45.8

Copenhagen to see its headquarters to see how the scientists have created these

0:51.2

Wonder Drugs, Zempik and Wigovey, and what they plan to do next.

0:56.2

Both of these drugs, the popular diabetes treatment Ozempick, and Wigovey, which was formulated strictly for weight loss, have had a remarkable run recently.

1:07.0

But when Hannah gets to Novo Nordisk's labs, she says that the place where scientists are developing successors to these blockbuster medications looks quite unassuming from the outside.

1:18.0

So I entered through automatic double doors and it's quite overwhelming on the ground floor. We went upstairs and we walked down this

1:25.2

incredibly long white, dramatically white corridor and going off these corridors are these very small

...

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