On a boat off Kalundborg harbor, Martin Høgh Sørensen steers while his wife, Karin, and friends Michael and Anne-Louise Eliasen tug and wind ropes to maneuver the sails.
On a boat off Kalundborg harbor, Martin Høgh Sørensen steers while his wife, Karin, and friends Michael and Anne-Louise Eliasen tug and wind ropes to maneuver the sails.
The quartet have between them notched almost 100 years of work for the local pharmaceutical business or its sister company — the former transforming life in this small Danish city. Because, a few years ago, Novo Nordisk struck proverbial gold: The company realized the active ingredient in its diabetes drug Ozempic caused patients to lose substantial amounts of weight. Soon enough, its Kalundborg factory began pumping out Wegovy, a drug approved for weight loss that uses the same active ingredient.
“A lot of people from Kalundborg used to commute to Copenhagen,” Sørensen, 69, told CNN. “Now it’s going the other way around. ” The ensuing worldwide clamor for Novo’s “wonder drugs” catapulted it to become, in 2023, Europe’s most valuable company. Danske Bank, the country’s biggest bank, also credits the firm as sparing Denmark’s economy from recession that year.
Sørensen works for Novo Nordisk Engineering, a company helping to expand the Kalundborg factory, part of Novo’s mammoth $9.3 billon investment into the area since 2021. He is, “of course, a little proud” of his city of fewer than 17,000 people that now finds itself an unlikely focal point of the global weight loss revolution. Still, revolutions rarely come easy.
Novo’s share price has plunged by almost three quarters since its peak in 2024 and has slipped down the ranking of Europe’s most valuable companies. It has also announced thousands of layoffs and expects sales and profit to drop by as much as 12% over 2026. So, what happened? And what does it mean for modern-day boomtown Kalundborg?
The first mover ‘curse’ Novo has “gone from having this unmatched capability… to now being quite exposed,” said Michael Leuchten, a senior European pharma research analyst at Jefferies, an investment firm. The company is locked in a fierce rivalry with Eli Lilly, the American pharmaceutical giant whose GLP-1 medications – named after the appetite-suppressing hormone they mimic – outsold its own for the first time last year in the United States, according to Jefferies.
In its first quarter results published Wednesday, Novo said that strong sales of its injectable Wegovy drug outside the US had helped boost earnings. But the company is bracing itself for an avalanche of cheaper generic versions of its drug as the patent protecting its active ingredient, semaglutide, expires this year in several countries, including India and China. Chief Executive Mike Doustdar attributes Novo’s troubles to the “curse of leadership.
” As the first mover in commercializing a popular, effective drug to treat obesity, Novo’s competitors were able to learn from its mistakes, he told CNN.
“We were paving the way for everyone else,” Doustdar said. A serious early error, he noted, was to not increase doses in some of its injectable pens to maximize the resulting weight loss. Leuchten sees it differently, arguing that Novo cornered itself by depending too much on semaglutide rather than diversifying its stockpile of active ingredients for its weight loss drugs. That would make the firm less vulnerable to competition as its patent expires in various markets, he said.
“What I disagree with is saying that because Novo made mistakes, others found it easier,” Leucthen told CNN. “Novo got it wrong and didn’t learn from mistakes and was too slow to change course. ” This year, Novo has released Wegovy pens at higher doses and, crucially, launched an oral pill version in the United States with much success .
In its first quarter results, Novo said prescriptions for the pill – which it manufactures in its facilities in North Carolina – have so far hit more than 2 million. According to report last month by Morgan Stanley, there are signs the pill is already expanding the market – that is, customers aren’t just those substituting pens for pills, but many are GLP-1 newcomers.
Las Olsen, chief economist at Danske Bank, said 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 told CNN. In February, Novo aired its first Super Bowl ad.
Under pressure from the Trump administration, it has agreed to slash drug prices for Americans paying cash and provide Wegovy at discounted prices for Medicare — unlocking millions of potential patients enrolled in the government health care program for senior citizens. But lower prices have also weighed on Novo’s earnings in its most important market. And Eli Lilly — which released its own GLP-1 pill last month — remains the $900 billion-plus thorn in Novo’s side.
The gold rush In Kalundborg, café owner Shaun Gamble sensed the mood in town shift after Novo announced mass layoffs in September.
“I also knew a few people who were laid off … it quite dramatic,” he told CNN 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 said it would axe worldwide, 5,000 were spread across its sites in Denmark. Novo did not say how many occurred in Kalundborg.
Gamble hopes the layoffs were a “glitch” as Novo continues to expand its factory in a place accustomed to the peaks and troughs of industry. In the 1960s, the town manufactured Carmen Curlers — globally popular heated rollers for hairstyling — before the arrival of the electric curling iron helped force the industry’s collapse. Novo is in no danger of that.
Still a $200 billion behemoth, the company’s growth has triggered an influx of people to Kalundborg in recent years, boosting demand for housing and property prices along with it. Around 10,000 people work at the factory either as employees or contractors, though many commute in from outside the city. A raft of local businesses, from construction to electrical services companies, have benefited from their proximity.
Yet they have, at times, struggled to hire enough staff as many prefer to work at Novo, according to Martin Damm, the mayor of Kalundborg municipality.
“I think we have a poor life without Novo Nordisk,” Damm told CNN. Despite Novo’s setbacks, Kalundborg is building for the future. Damm said more than 1,000 homes are currently under construction as well as a highway linking the city to Copenhagen, lying about 60 miles west. Sales assistants and hair stylists tell Damm they’re speaking English more often as their clientele becomes more international.
Back on Sørensen’s boat, beneath a waning spring sun, the longtime Kalundborg resident thinks Novo’s dominance has made at least one aspect of daily life more difficult. The company, he said, has hoovered up many local mechanics. “It makes it difficult to have your car repaired,” he said.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Miss Manners: Navigating the baffling new dress codes for weddings and other eventsAdvice from Judith Martin, Nicholas Ivor Martin and Jacobina Martin.
Read more »
Do GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic prevent cancer?Several studies have served up tantalizing hints about the drugs’ potential cancer prevention benefits, but other results land all over the map.
Read more »
Lockheed Martin’s X-59 Completes Key Test FlightsLockheed Martin’s X-59 Quiet SuperSonic Technology aircraft, developed with NASA, has completed significant test flights over the Mojave Desert, reaching 0.95 Mach. The aircraft aims to achieve quiet supersonic flight, minimizing sonic booms. Further testing will focus on reaching supersonic speeds and its design goals of Mach 1.4 at 55,000 feet.
Read more »
Ozempic Can Curb Cravings in Alcohol Use Disorder, Landmark Trial FindsOzempic can help people who are battling alcoholism, a major new clinical trial has concluded.
Read more »
Weight-Loss Drugs Like Ozempic May Come With an Unexpected CostScience, Space and Technology News 2026
Read more »
Miss Manners: How long is acceptable to hang out at a restaurant after the meal is over?Advice from Judith Martin, Nicholas Ivor Martin and Jacobina Martin.
Read more »