Lessons and blessings: The Novo Nordisk way

Novo Nordisk has transitioned from a small Danish company founded in 1923 to one of the biggest multinational powerhouses in the pharma space. At BIO-Europe in Stockholm, Sweden, Tomas Landh, innovation sourcing VP, senior principal scientist search and evaluation spoke candidly about the firm’s growth and the reason he has stayed at the company for over 20 years.

“It has been a fantastic journey, number one. It has all really been on the positive side, but I think such growth comes at an expense, there is no doubt about that,” said Landh. “It acquires a lot of attention and a lot of integration that have followed our acquisitions we have done as it can cause tension and so on.”

Over the years, Novo has made various acquisitions. In February, Novo Holdings – a holding and investment company responsible for managing the Novo Nordisk Foundation’s assets and wealth – acquired publicly-owned contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) Catalent for $16.5 billion. One month later, the company laid out its plans to buy Cardior Pharmaceuticals for over $1 billion. And in June, the Korean press reported the firm is on the verge of paying $216 million to acquire SK Pharmteco’s Petersburg, Virginia manufacturing facility.

Evidently the firm has made some big moves in the M&A space, but Landh admitted at the start of the company’s journey, Novo Nordisk “did not scale our business development organization on track with the rest of the companies […] we were a little behind.” However, he explained how the division is now “appropriately scaled” to carry-out their dealmaking activities.

With only two of his team left as “the rest have retired” and Novo Nordisk’s headcount nearly reaching 70,000, Tim Opler, managing director at investment bank and brokerage Stifel Institutional, asked Landh whether you can scale up a business to that extent and “still keep the place special.”

Landh replied it is “possible” to do this and “that is one of the reasons why I am still with Novo.” He shared with the audience details about the “pride” he has “working for Novo Nordisk and the Novo Nordisk way.”

He explained how the simplicity of the firm’s message, its honesty, and its patient focus is “absolutely fantastic [and] makes you really proud to work for the company. As long as we can keep that Novo Nordisk way […] we will do a good job.”