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Wegovy maker seeks leader to grab more of slimming drug pie
The Observer
|June 01, 2025
Novo Noraisk, the maker of weignt-loss drug Wegovy, seeks a new CEO who can help the company make up the ground it has lost to Eli Lilly.
It’s a tall order. The company is better known for stability than disruption; it has had just five CEOs since it was founded in 1923 and has stayed focused on treating diabetes.
Lars Fruergard Jørgensen led the company through a tumultuous transformation, bringing Wegovy to market in the US in 2021 and fuelling a dramatic rally in its stock price.
Shares have tumbled around 50% in the past year, and Jørgensen was fired last month. There is no obvious successor within Novo. “They don’t have a crown prince,” said Niels Westergård-Nielsen, a professor at Copenhagen Business School.
This story is from the June 01, 2025 edition of The Observer.
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