19.05.2025.
Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk is parting ways with its longtime CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen, amid growing competition in the booming weight loss drug market dominated by its blockbuster treatments Wegovy and Ozempic.
Jørgensen, who has led the company since 2017, will remain in place temporarily to support a smooth transition.
The leadership shake-up comes as American rival Eli Lilly intensifies the competition, unveiling promising early results for a once-daily weight loss pill — a potential breakthrough that could disrupt the dominance of existing injectable treatments like Wegovy and Ozempic.
Under Jørgensen’s leadership, Novo Nordisk saw sales, profits, and its stock price triple.
However, recent market challenges and share price declines since mid-2024 prompted the Novo Nordisk Foundation, which controls a majority of shareholder votes, to push for accelerated succession planning.
As part of the leadership transition, Lars Rebien Sørensen, former CEO of Novo Nordisk and current chair of the Novo Nordisk Foundation, will join the board as an observer with plans for a formal election in 2026.
Eli Lilly has recently announced new study results showing that its weight loss drug Zepbound (tirzepatide) outperformed Wegovy (semaglutide) across key measures, including overall weight reduction and waist circumference.
“Thanks to the latest advancements in obesity management medications, more physicians and patients are witnessing significant weight reduction beyond what they have seen before,”
said Louis J. Aronne, MD, FACP, DABOM, director of the Comprehensive Weight Control Center and the Sanford I. Weill Professor of Metabolic Research at Weill Cornell Medicine, an internist specializing in diabetes and obesity at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, and principal investigator of SURMOUNT-5.
