Introduction
With all the attention Ozempic and Wegovy have received, you might wonder, who makes Ozempic and Wegovy? Who is the company behind semaglutide? In this article, we shine the spotlight on the Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk, which has revolutionized diabetes and weight management treatments.
About Novo Nordisk
The company behind semaglutide is Novo Nordisk, a global healthcare company with headquarters just outside of Copenhagen, Denmark.
Novo Nordisk has over 59,000 employees in 80 offices around the world, with market presence in 170 countries. They manufacture products in facilities in nine countries, namely Algeria, Brazil, China, Denmark, France, Japan, Russia, and the US. Meanwhile, their research and development (R&D) centers are located in China, Denmark, India, the UK, and the US.
Moreover, the Danish pharma produces 50 percent of the world’s insulin supply and manufactures over 600 million insulin pens yearly. In 2022, they conducted approximately 150 clinical trials, and in 2023 reached around 40.5 million patients with their products.
History of Novo Nordisk
Novo Nordisk traces its roots to two small Danish companies, Nordisk Insulinlaboratorium and Novo Terapeutisk Laboratorium.
It was in 1921 when Danish Nobel laureate August Krogh and his wife, Marie, happened to hear about insulin. Canadian surgeon Sir Frederick Banting, research student Charles Best, and University of Toronto professor JJR Macloed had just discovered insulin.
Marie, who was suffering from diabetes, encouraged August to seek out the drug. August traveled to Canada to ask permission to make insulin available in the Danish market. Later on, Marie persuaded scientist Hans Christian Hagedorn and pharmacist August Kongsted to join her husband in producing insulin. Kongsted is co-founder of Danish pharmaceutical company Løvens Kemiske Fabrik, which now goes by the name of LEO Pharma.
In 1923, they established Nordisk Insulinlaboratorium, commercializing the production of insulin. Also in 1923, Krogh, Hagedorn, and Kongsted were able to treat their very first diabetes patients.
Later, in 1925, former Nordisk Insulinlaboratorium employees and brothers Harald and Thorvald Pedersen set up a rival company, Novo Terapeutisk Laboratorium. After several decades, the two companies would eventually merge in 1989, forming Novo Nordisk A/S.
Currently, Novo Nordisk manufactures, markets, and distributes over 24 drugs, including Ozempic and Wegovy. These include insulin injectable pens to medications used to treat obesity, diabetes, haemophilia, growth disorders, as well as hormone-replacement therapy. The Danish pharma also produces semaglutide competitors Saxenda and Victoza (liraglutide).
Novo Nordisk today
Today, Novo Nordisk aims to defeat diabetes and provide access to affordable care for vulnerable patients in every country. It has reached 100,000 children with diabetes and reduced the ceiling price of human insulin.
Defeat Diabetes
There’s been an evident rise in people suffering from serious chronic diseases. Today, one in every 11 people in the world has diabetes. This figure is expected to balloon to one in every nine by 2045, if no urgent actions are taken.
As a response, Novo Nordisk’s strategy is to provide solutions to accelerate the prevention of type 2 diabetes and obesity. Because of the company’s heritage with a link to diabetes, it continues to set its eyes on defeating the disease.
Some of its efforts include the Diabetes Compass, an initiative they launched in April 2021 by the World Diabetes Foundation. Incidentally, it was also Novo Nordisk who established the World Diabetes Foundation in 2002.
Diabetes Compass offers digital support to healthcare professionals and diabetics for those in low to middle-income economies. Essentially, Novo Nordisk would like to provide innovative digital solutions in communities and medical facilities. This specifically applies to caring for diabetes and hypertension patients and improving their health outcomes.
Currently, Novo Nordisk has launched the Diabetes Compass in its partner countries, Sri Lanka and Tanzania. In these countries, national authorities, diabetes organizations, and various institutions work together to improve diabetes care.
Changing Diabetes in Children
Novo Nordisk has expanded the goals of its Changing Diabetes program to reach 100,000 children by 2030. Over 30,000 children suffering from type 1 diabetes have received access to medical care and medicine.
Affordable human insulin
In 2001, Novo Nordisk launched a policy to reduce the cost of human insulin in the world’s least developed countries.
Today, it has lowered the ceiling price of human insulin to $3 in 76 low-income and middle-income countries. This is part of its Access to Insulin commitment.
How Novo Nordisk developed semaglutide
Semaglutide was invented in 2012 by Jesper Lau, Vice President of Novo Nordisk’s Diabetes Protein and Peptide Chemistry department. With him was a group of researchers. Jesper has been working at the Danish pharmaceutical company since 1990.
Jesper and his team made small adjustments to liraglutide, a drug that triggers insulin secretion to regulate blood sugar levels. This was to improve the duration of semaglutide’s effects. Because of these modifications, people using Ozempic must only inject it once a week instead of daily, as with liraglutide.
In 2017, the US FDA approved Ozempic, while semaglutide’s other anti-diabetes brand, Rybelsus, received FDA approval in 2019. Wegovy, meanwhile, semaglutide’s weight loss drug, got FDA green light in 2021.
Sales and profits from semaglutide
In November 2023, Novo Nordisk’s sales shot up by as much as 58 percent, setting a new record in profits. This was due primarily to its massive popularity in the US.
Novo Nordisk performed even better than estimates of $8.2 billion in total revenue and $3.1 in net income. It finished strong at $8.4 billion and $3.2 billion respectively.
Ozempic and Wegovy, in particular, amassed $4.8 billion in sales in the third quarter of the year. The two brands accounted for 52 percent of the company’s total revenue for January to September. Moreover, the pharma company’s shares went up by over 75 percent over a period of 12 months. No wonder it’s Europe’s largest public company. Its market value has become larger than Denmark’s whole annual economic output.
What’s next
2024 has been a big year for weight loss drugs, with their soaring popularity. Experts anticipate the demand will only skyrocket even further, as the medicines become more accessible. Analysts from multinational investment bank and financial services firm Goldman Sachs predict that 15 million adult Americans will be on obesity medication by 2030.
Supply issues amid rising demand
Despite its success, Novo Nordisk and its competitors will have to deal with ongoing supply issues surrounding their products. Towards the end of 2023, there was a major shortage in Wegovy and Ozempic amid the clamor for the drugs. It is likely that the shortage problem will persist for several more years.
In a statement, Novo Nordisk admitted that they experienced a “short-term stock-out” of Wegovy in the US through December. This was due to the demand that surpassed their supply capacities.
Six obesity clinical trials to end in 2024
2024 is a big year for semaglutide and other weight loss drugs as six obesity clinical trials will reach completion. The studies strive to support the development of monoacylglycerol acyltransferase 2 (MGAT2) inhibitors and calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) inhibitors. These are two new ingredients being investigated for their potential weight loss benefits.
In addition, MGAT2 inhibition has been linked to weight loss through the control of gut hormone regulation and energy expenditure. Meanwhile, CGRP levels are typically higher in people with obesity.
According to Professor Carel le Roux,, pharmaceutical companies are reversing their approach to testing new drugs. Le Roux id the director of the Metabolic Medicine Lab at the University College Dublin’s Diabetes Complications Research Centre.
Semaglutide’s brands were produced wherein the weight management benefits were discovered after the anti-diabetic effects. Instead of this route, drug manufacturers are developing drugs for obesity before developing those for diabetes.
“Companies used to first de-risk the treatment by using it for diabetes, and then expand into the disease of obesity,” le Roux told ClinicalTrials Arena. “What we are now seeing is that companies are doing the opposite. I think you’re going to see drugs designed for obesity being used for people with diabetes and you’re going see drugs designed for diabetes that will be used for people with obesity. It’s going to be bi-directional.”
Just on the horizon: IcoSema
In January 2024, Novo Nordisk announced its COMBINE 3 phase 3a drug trial results. It was a study on the efficacy of a new weekly medicine called IcoSema.
IcoSema is a fixed-ratio combination of basal insulin codec and semaglutide. Basal insulin copies the process of how your pancreas continuously produces insulin. It is then gradually absorbed and utilized by your body throughout the day.
Once-weekly injections of IcoSema were better at controlling blood sugar levels in people with type 2 diabetes. This was versus daily injections of two synthetic versions of human insulin: insulin glargine and insulin aspart.
Conclusion
Novo Nordisk’s history with treating diabetes goes as far back as the 1920s, when insulin was discovered in Canada. Through its Danish founders’ efforts, the world is now benefitting from the pharmaceutical companies’ breakthroughs in developing diabetes treatments. The drugmaker is committed to defeating diabetes and is at the helm of more scientific discoveries surrounding the health condition.
Novo Nordisk developed semaglutide, the active ingredient behind type 2 diabetes medicine Ozempic and weight loss drug Wegovy, in 2012. 2023 marked an exceptional year for the company in sales and profits as the demand for the drugs skyrocketed. The Danish pharma also exceeded analysts’ forecasts of its income and revenue.
Clinical trials continue to attest to semaglutide’s efficacy and more research is set to reach completion in 2024. These are investigating not just semaglutide’s benefits but combined with basal insulin.
Amid the rise in demand, Novo Nordisk and other weight loss drug manufacturers have been navigating a serious supply shortage. Experts foresee the problem will last for a few more years.
Image by DCStudio on Freepik
