As Novo Nordisk transitions from the leadership of longtime CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen to newly appointed chief Maziar Mike Doustdar, the company isn't making a point to rapidly add staffers.
“We currently have a hiring freeze in non-business critical areas,” a Novo spokesperson confirmed in an emailed statement. The company currently employs more than 77,000 staffers around the world, according to its website.
Doustdar took over from Jørgensen on Aug. 7, a day after the company reported 154.9 billion Danish kroner (about $24.9 billion) in half-year sales. In a note to clients, analysts at ODDO BHF described the company’s 16% revenue growth during the period as a “sharp slowdown" from prior earnings periods.
Before the August earnings report, the Danish drugmaker last month tempered its 2025 sales growth forecast to reflect slower-than-expected growth of its semaglutide-based products Ozempic and Wegovy.
When Novo Nordisk revealed its planned CEO change, the company cited "recent market challenges" experienced during Jørgensen’s tenure. This time last year, the drugmaker boasted a share price of about $135, and shares have since plummeted more than 59%.
Before officially handing over the reins, Jørgensen warned that cost-cutting measures could be on the horizon for Novo.
“We probably won’t be able to avoid layoffs,” he said in an Aug. 6 interview with Danish news outlet DR, as quoted by Reuters. "When you have to adjust a company, there are some areas where you have to have fewer people, some [areas] where you have to be smaller."
Doustdar seems to agree, noting on Novo's recent earnings call that the company needs to “reallocate and relook at our cost base and really put the money where the growth is." Previously Novo’s EVP of international organizations, the Novo employee of more than three decades highlighted his ability to “execute good and outcompete my competition.”
Outside of organizational moves, the new CEO looks to “focus more on diabetes and obesity, as this is our main core and has always been,” Doustdar said on the call.