Commentary
Who would have thought obesity could be such big business?
Novo Nordisk is now officially Europe’s most valuable company, almost solely off the back of its new weight-loss “wonder drug” semaglutide, a.k.a. Wegovy/Ozempic. With a market capitalization of $570 billion, Novo is worth more than the entire economy of its home country, Denmark. Its philanthropic foundation has also become the world’s largest, with twice the assets of the Gates Foundation.
Novo and its annual tax bill of $2.3 billion is single-handedly keeping the Danish economy afloat. According to Fortune, the company’s “massive investments and heightened production” helped Denmark’s economy expand at 2 percent last year, over four times the EU average. The massive spoils of semaglutide “drove record government spending on defense, the green transition and support for Ukraine.”
