From insulin to Ozempic, history of Novo Nordisk's CEOs

(Reuters) -Ozempic-maker Novo Nordisk on Friday ousted its CEO Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen over concerns the company is losing its first-mover advantage in the competitive obesity drug market to American rival Eli Lilly.

The company has had five CEOs in its more than 100 years of history. Jorgensen, who joined in 2017, has had the shortest tenure of all.

Here is a timeline of the company with respect to its CEOs: -

1920s-2000

Danish couple August and Marie Krogh founded Nordsik Insulinlaboratorium in 1923 and commercialized the production of insulin.

The company competed with Novo Terapeutisk Laboratorium, which was founded by brothers Harald and Thorvald Pedersen, until the two merged in 1989.

Knud Hallas Molle was Novo's second CEO from 1961 to 1981. During that time, both companies pursued and developed techniques to produce pharmaceutical products using fermentation.

Mads Ovlisen served as CEO of Novo and Novo Nordisk after its merger from 1981 to 2000.

In 1982, Novo marketed Human Monocomponent Insulin, and in 1987, the first human insulin products were made using genetically engineered yeast cells. Novo launched the NovoPen - the first insulin pen device in 1985.

2000–2017

Lars Rebien Sorensen becomes CEO after serving as the head of Novo's healthcare business. The company's enzymes business was spun off as a separate company, Novozymes A/S in 2000. In 2004, Levemir – a long-acting modern insulin – was launched.

Under Sorensen, the company develops its first GLP-1 drug, a precursor to Ozempic and Wegovy. Liraglutide, a GLP-1 product for treatment of type 2 diabetes, enters phase 3 trials.

Novo Nordisk launches its first GLP-1 product, liraglutide, branded as Victoza in 2009 in Europe and in 2010 in the U.S.

In 2013, Novo Nordisk's semaglutide starts global phase 3 trials. In December 2016, it files semaglutide for regulatory approval in the U.S. and the EU, based on the results from the six trials.

2017-present

In January 2017, Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen became CEO decades after joining the company as a graduate. In December 2017, Ozempic, also known as semaglutide, gets approved in the U.S. for diabetes, the first once-weekly GLP-1 drug.

Wegovy, which uses the same active ingredient as Ozempic, gets approved in the U.S. as a treatment for obesity in June 2021.

In November 2023, U.S. and UK regulators approved Eli Lilly's rival weight-loss treatment Zepbound, after the company's diabetes drug was launched in 2022.

In December 2024, Novo Nordisk's next-generation obesity drug shows lower-than-expected weight loss in a late-stage study, dealing a blow to its ambitions for a successor to Wegovy that is more powerful than rival Lilly's Zepbound.

On May 16, Novo Nordisk says Jorgensen will step down, citing recent market challenges and a slide in the stock since mid-2024.

Jorgensen says in an interview with Danish broadcaster TV2 that he did not see the decision coming and was only informed very recently.

(Reporting by Puyaan Singh and Sneha S K in Bengaluru)