Novo Nordisk, the Danish drug company, has confirmed that its workforce has shrunk by 13,000 employees from its peak, leaving it with around 66,000 people globally.
The figure was shared at the company’s Capital Markets Day on 21st September,2026. The first wave of 9,000 exits was announced in September 2025 under CEO Mike Doustdar, who took over a month earlier to regain ground against rival Eli Lilly. Another 4,000 employees have since left the organisation.
The leaner structure is central to Novo’s reset. The drugmaker reported that more than DKK (Danish Krone) 10 billion saved through the cuts will be reinvested to fuel its next phase of growth.
At the heart of that plan is a pipeline push. Novo has set a target to deliver more than five potential multi-blockbuster medicines by 2030 and to achieve over DKK 150 billion in risk-adjusted pipeline sales by 2035. The rollout includes CagriSema injection in early 2027, cagrilintide and high-dose semaglutide in 2028, and a tenfold expansion of oral GLP-1 capacity to reach 15 million patients.
The company also aims to serve 60 million patients by 2030, up from 45 million today.
The strategy comes as Novo trails Lilly in the GLP-1 race. In H1 2026, Lilly’s Mounjaro and Zepbound clocked $27.6 billion in combined sales versus Novo’s $15.7 billion from Ozempic and Wegovy.
Investors remain cautious. Novo ADRs slid over 8% to $39.70 on 21st September,2026, as concerns over the 2032 US patent expiry of semaglutide (a drug molecule) and pricing pressure overshadowed the long-term targets.
