All about Novo Nordisk, the multinational pharma star among European companies
Financial markets/economy
Posted by MoneyController on 18.07.2024
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Thanks to the success of drugs against diabetes and obesity, a Danish company, Novo Nordisk, has reached the highest capitalisation in Europe (now around USD 630 billion).
Ozempic and Wegovy are the two names of anti-obesity products that have experienced great success. If one adds to the marketing of these two successful drugs the fact that the company in question produces half of the world's insulin, one can understand why Novo Nordisk has now become not only one of Europe's largest pharmaceutical companies, but even one of Europe's largest companies. But that's not all: as Georgia Banjo points out in '1843', the Danish company has the largest capitalisation in Europe, having managed to surpass even LVMH (around USD 380 billion).
Novo Nordisk is today the flagship of the Danish economy, so much so that, according to Banjo, the company's performance would be behind Denmark's GDP growth of +1.7% in 2023: suffice it to say that, in a country with a population of 5.9 million, the pharmaceutical company absorbs around 3% of the total workforce. It is also remarkable to note - as Banjo also writes - that precisely because of the trade surplus for which the pharmaceutical company is largely responsible, the Danish central bank keeps interest rates lower than the ECB does: this means, concretely, that the costs for mortgages and financing are on average lower.
It is also interesting to report a question that Banjo puts to Martin Jes Iversen, professor at the Copenhagen business school: is there a risk that Novo Nordisk, should things go wrong, will have the same effect on Denmark as Nokia had on Finland? The telephone company was responsible for 4% of the entire national GDP. Although almost comparable in terms of population, Denmark now has a GDP of USD 400 billion, compared to Finland's USD 282 billion. Not only that: alongside Novo Nordisk, Denmark can boast three European giants: the toy manufacturer Lego, the transport company Maersk and the largest wind turbine manufacturer Vestas.
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