Wegovy-maker Novo Nordisk to cut about 9,000 jobs in sweeping restructure

Wegovy-maker Novo Nordisk to cut about 9,000 jobs in sweeping restructure

Novo Nordisk announced on Wednesday that it will cut roughly 9,000 jobs worldwide as part of a major company-wide restructuring aimed at tightening costs and refocusing the Danish drugmaker on its core diabetes and obesity businesses. The move — which the company said is designed to generate about 8 billion Danish crowns (roughly $1.26 billion) in annual savings — marks the most dramatic rollback at a company that exploded in size on the back of Wegovy and Ozempic. 

“Novo Nordisk today announced a company-wide transformation to simplify its organisation, improve the speed of decision-making, and reallocate resources towards the company’s growth opportunities in diabetes and obesity,” new chief executive Mike Doustdar said in the statement accompanying the announcement. The company, which employed about 78,400 people before the cuts, said around 5,000 positions of the total would be eliminated in Denmark. 

The decision caps a bruising few months for the company. In late July Novo sharply pared its 2025 growth and profit outlook after warning that competition from copycat and compounded versions of its GLP-1 drugs and an aggressive push by U.S. rival Eli Lilly had undercut sales momentum, sending the company’s market value tumbling. The new cost programme follows a global hiring freeze for roles judged non-critical that the company imposed in August. 

Analysts and executives said the scale of the cuts reflects both a reversal of the aggressive expansion that accompanied the Wegovy boom and the reality that Novo must adapt to a far more competitive market in the United States and elsewhere. “Our markets are evolving, particularly in obesity, as it has become more competitive and consumer-driven. Our company must evolve as well,” Doustdar added. Company filings and market reporting show that Novo’s workforce had nearly doubled in recent years to meet surging demand — and that much of the recent hiring was in manufacturing and commercial functions that are now in excess of the company’s revised plans. 

The restructuring will cut across geographies and business units, Novo said, though the company provided only limited detail on which departments or functions will be targeted beyond confirming the Denmark figure. Officials emphasised the program will include measures to “instil an increased performance-based culture” and prioritise investment where it will have the most impact. Management also said it would seek to limit compulsory redundancies where possible through natural attrition, redeployment and voluntary departure schemes. 

For Denmark the announced local scale of the reductions is politically and economically sensitive. Novo is the country’s corporate heavyweight: its fortunes feed the jobs market, local suppliers and public finances. The company’s mounting troubles already forced Danish authorities to revise down the nation’s 2025 growth forecast earlier this year, underscoring how a big restructuring at Novo could ripple through the Danish economy. Labour groups and political leaders in Copenhagen are likely to press the company for consultation and mitigation measures as details are worked out. 

Investors welcomed the cost discipline in principle but remain focused on execution risk. The announced savings target aims to shore up margins and rebuild investor confidence after a summer rout in the share price; yet delivering those savings without undermining future growth depends on how the cuts are allocated — for example, between commercial staff, manufacturing, research and development, or corporate functions. Creditors and rating agencies will also be watching the company’s cash flow and any implications for capital spending, including factories and ongoing R&D programmes. 

Novo’s problems echo structural questions that have shadowed other drugmakers that scaled rapidly to meet blockbuster demand. The company faces a complex mix: intense rivalry from rival GLP-1 therapies led by Eli Lilly’s tirzepatide products, persistent use of compounded (and often cheaper) copies of semaglutide injections in parts of the U.S., and operational commitments the company made during its rapid growth phase. Those pressures have pressured growth forecasts and forced management to prioritize profitability and cash-flow stability over expansionary hiring. 

The human cost will be substantial. Beyond the tens of thousands of livelihoods affected globally, there are practical issues to manage: severance and local employment-law requirements, the logistics of winding down or reassigning roles in manufacturing lines and contract relationships, and the risk of losing institutional knowledge at a time when Novo is also trying to sustain a research pipeline. The company has said it will enter formal consultation processes with employee representatives and authorities in the affected countries. 

Politically and strategically, the cuts also raise questions about how Novo will balance short-term financial repair with longer-term competitiveness. Cutting too deep in R&D or critical manufacturing capacity could leave the company exposed if demand recovers or if regulatory and supply dynamics change. Conversely, failing to right-size administrative and sales footprints risks a prolonged drag on margins and investor confidence. The new CEO’s playbook — whether to preserve scientific muscle while slimming commercial heft, or the reverse — will determine whether the restructure is seen as prudent surgery or damaging retrenchment. 

Labour markets and suppliers in regions where Novo expanded rapidly — notably parts of the United States and Denmark — will watch how the firm handles separations and whether local supply chains face contract cancellations. Earlier this month the company cancelled some start dates for newly hired staff and trimmed bonuses in Denmark as preliminary cost measures, signalling that the group has already begun extracting slack from its payroll ahead of the formal restructuring. 

How quickly the market believes the plan will restore financial momentum will affect Novo’s near-term valuation. The company said the transformation will allow it to “reallocate resources towards the company’s growth opportunities in diabetes and obesity,” a nod that management still sees the core franchise as the long-run engine. But given the speed with which the competitive landscape changed this year, investors will demand clear milestones: where cuts fall, how much cash is freed in 2025 and 2026, and whether the company will continue to invest in pipeline projects and manufacturing resilience. 

Analysis — a reset forced by competition, and a delicate balancing act

Novo Nordisk’s announcement is simultaneously an admission of strategic reality and a gamble. On one hand, the company is acknowledging that the runaway growth era fuelled by Wegovy has ended and that a leaner cost base is necessary to protect margins and shareholder value. On the other hand, the scale of the cuts — at a company that had expanded its workforce aggressively to meet one product’s extraordinary demand — risks eroding the industrial and scientific base that underpinned that success.

For institutional investors, the key question is execution: can Novo cut headcount and overheads while keeping capacity to innovate and manufacture safely? For Denmark and local communities, the question is how social partners and government will soften the blow and retrain workers. For patients and healthcare systems, a narrower, financially secure Novo is arguably preferable to one that overextended and risked financial instability — but only if the firm continues to invest in R&D and supply reliability.

In short, the restructuring is necessary from a financial perspective. Whether it becomes a disciplined, strategic reset or a damaging contraction will depend on the fine print — which departments are trimmed, how the company preserves its research and manufacturing bedrock, and whether management can restore confidence with tangible cost savings and a credible path back to growth.