Nordisk, every mention

Novo Nordisk (Ozempic) · Acquired Jan 22, 2024 · 37 mentions

• ▶ 29:11 David Rosenthal Alright, so how does this actually turn into Nordisk?
• ▶ 44:03 David Rosenthal So, everything we're talking about in these days, and what Nordisk was originally producing, were insulin tablets
• ▶ 45:06 Ben Gilbert Oh, I didn't realize that wasn't Nordisk, but Novo.
• ▶ 45:08 David Rosenthal Yeah, Novo invented the pen, and Nordisk focused on pumps, and they were, um, one of several companies, but one of the leading companies innovating in pumps.
• ▶ 52:19 Ben Gilbert Huh, so Novo, not Nordisk, became the globally dominant.
• ▶ 52:51 David Rosenthal Now Nordisk, remember, like I just said, once NPH comes out, their strategy becomes really like, we produce domestically, and then we make our revenue and our profits internationally by licensing, not by production.
• ▶ 53:24 David Rosenthal And Nordisk for the duration of the war basically just gets put into hibernation mode.
• ▶ 53:30 David Rosenthal They're still producing a little bit to help supply Denmark, but there's really nothing going on there.
• ▶ 53:36 Ben Gilbert They basically cannot address the market of any allied countries anymore.
• ▶ 54:25 Ben Gilbert So just to make sure I have it right, it sounds like Nordisk is only making a small supply for Denmark, Novo is supplying all of Nazi-occupied Europe, and the allied countries no longer have access to anything Novo or Nordisk makes, and so…
• ▶ 54:45 David Rosenthal No problem because Nordisk has licensed all the technology and production to them.
• ▶ 54:52 David Rosenthal The only problem is for Nordisk that Nordisk can no longer get the payments from them because obviously, you know, transfer payments from allied countries are now blocked.
• ▶ 56:15 David Rosenthal And as part of that now, they have the resources to really build up their own scientific and R&D divisions and become a real powerhouse to rival what Nordisk was before the war.
• ▶ 1:02:44 David Rosenthal In the early 19 seventies, Novo approaches the old bitter rival Nordisk, and here's the situation, you know, this is a perfect marriage.
• ▶ 1:03:03 David Rosenthal And Nordisk, they've just gone through a pretty rocky succession period after Hagedorn retired.
• ▶ 1:03:10 David Rosenthal They're now on their third CEO in seven years.
• ▶ 1:03:45 David Rosenthal For Nordisk.
• ▶ 1:03:47 David Rosenthal He is like the wartime CEO for Nordisk.
• ▶ 1:03:50 David Rosenthal He rejects Novo's overtures to merge, and then he goes and convinces the board, both of the operating company Nordisk and the foundation, that this new MC insulin generation, which remember Novo innovated, that this actually represents
• ▶ 1:04:09 David Rosenthal A golden opportunity for Nordisk to get back in the game because it's going to be a complete reset of all the insulins on the market, whether they're fast acting or long lasting insulins, they're all going to move over to this MC highly…
• ▶ 1:04:46 David Rosenthal So, Brenham convinces the board that rather than merging, they should use their capital reserves to rebuild up Nordisk's own production capacity, go hire a global sales force,
• ▶ 1:05:03 David Rosenthal He says, we're gonna go enter America directly as this, like, forgotten, you know, Nordisk company.
• ▶ 1:05:27 David Rosenthal They're not gonna move as fast as he thinks Nordisk can.
• ▶ 1:05:32 David Rosenthal And even though it's unrealistic that Nordisk is gonna overtake Eli Lilly in America, if they can get even a small percentage of the American market, that's huge.
• ▶ 1:05:42 David Rosenthal Nordisk is a small company, and America is by far the largest market for diabetes in the world.
• ▶ 1:06:44 Ben Gilbert That's the era we're in, where if Nordisk wants to enter the American market, they kind of can without too many barriers.
• ▶ 1:07:04 David Rosenthal So for the entire decade of the 19 seventies, Nordisk's sales grow at 30% compounded annually, which is amazing.
• ▶ 1:07:16 David Rosenthal Now they're still small.
• ▶ 1:07:21 David Rosenthal Nordisk is still only about one-tenth the size of Novo overall, but they're a third the size of Novo's insulin business, and they've moved from being this licensing company to now an actual production company with capacity all around the…
• ▶ 1:07:38 David Rosenthal So this is a huge win from, like, basically they were gonna be taken over for cash by their old rivals, and now they're back in the game.
• ▶ 1:10:51 David Rosenthal So ServiceNow was started in 2003 by Fred Luddy, and Fred, kind of like August Crowe starting Nordisk, was already the equivalent of a Nobel Prize winning software developer and founder.
• ▶ 1:19:33 David Rosenthal Nordisk, meanwhile, remember, they're in the midst of this aggressive expansion plan and scaling based on MC Insulin.
• ▶ 1:20:04 David Rosenthal And Novo is doing this too in the background, but Nordisk, like we're not going to get caught up in the specifically human insulin hype.
• ▶ 1:20:14 David Rosenthal So in 1984, Nordisk passes the German company Hochst to become the number three global player in insulin.
• ▶ 1:20:36 David Rosenthal So, 1984, Nordisk passes them.
• ▶ 1:20:39 David Rosenthal On the back of that, they do their own share listing on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange, so they change the structure of the operating company, and still the foundation controls the majority of the votes, but for the first time, outside…
• ▶ 1:20:58 David Rosenthal And by the end of the 19 eighties, Nordisk is now up to 20% global market share,