Today we’re going to take you through the company behind the GLP-1 drugs Wegovy and Ozempic that are used to treat obesity and diabetes. 

Founded in 1923 and headquartered just outside Copenhagen in Denmark, Novo Nordisk prides itself as a global healthcare company that aims to drive change to defeat serious chronic disease and build on its heritage in diabetes. 

The Danish drugmaker said it seeks to do so by pioneering scientific breakthroughs, expanding access to its medicines and working to prevent and ultimately cure the diseases it treats. 

Fast forward to today, Novo Nordisk’s global footprint spans across 170 countries, with production facilities in 13 of them, and 10 research and development centres in key markets China, Denmark, India, the UK and the US. 

Novo Nordisk is a company to watch because of its breakthrough GLP-1 injectable medications for diabetes and obesity care in recent years. But what are the key drivers of growth for the firm right now?

Meanwhile, concerns surrounding competition against other industry peers such as Eli Lilly continue to weigh on investors’ minds as they mull what the next battleground for the big pharmaceutical players will be. 

That’s especially so with the expiry of the firm’s patents in key markets nearing.

But it seems like oral pills are the next chapter for pharmaceutical firms targeting the obesity market, with Novo Nordisk rolling out its first GLP-1 pill for weight loss in the US earlier in January.

With Goldman Sachs in 2025 forecasting the daily oral pills will capture about a quarter of the anti-obesity medication market by 2030, how will Novo Nordisk’s oral GLP-1 medications augment its growth trajectory?

On Under the Radar, Money Matters’ finance presenter Chua Tian Tian posed these questions to Jay Thyagarajan, Senior Vice President, Region APAC, Novo Nordisk.