Bitter experience from the 2016 mass layoffs influenced this week's firings of approximately 370 employees in Novo Nordisk Denmark. The company has tried to learn from the past and therefore, the current round of job cuts differs in many ways from the previous, says the cross-union representative in Novo Nordisk.
Danish drug group Novo Nordisk terminates 400 employees, mainly in Denmark. But according to CSO Mads Krogsgaard Thomsen, the firings do not equal cost cuts but rather a switch-over to a digital era.
Digital products, warning about leaks and notifying the user about needs for changing, create new and complex challenges for Coloplast and form the basis for future growth at the same time. This is according to the company's CEO and SVP, Global R&D.
A new Pan-European crowdfunding platform wants to connect private and professional investors to start-ups with a good idea but no money.
The world's largest fertility group, Australian Virtus Health, has acquired Danish Trianglen Fertility Clinic for up to DKK 202 million (USD 31.34 million). The clinic then becomes Virtus' second Danish million-dollar acquisition.
Danish drug group Novo Nordisk has initiated a study with several new formulations of a tablet version of the GLP-1 molecule semaglutide. It can potentially decrease the company's production costs, change the pricing of the drug and not least, improve the side-effect profile.
The Danish government allocates DKK 54 million (USD 8.46 million) to ensure Danish participation in a new international program to obtain information about future drugs. The pharmaceutical procurement service Amgros and the Danish Medicines Agency welcome the initiative.
Hearing device group William Demant fully acknowledges its mistakes in two Australian subsidiaries that are now being fined a two-digit million sum due to misleading marketing practices.
The Danish Health Authority has appointed Novo Nordisk's new drug Ozempic as first choice of GLP-1 analogues for treating type 2 diabetes. However, it does not apply to patients with cardiovascular problems or the eye disease diabetic retinopathy.
Every year, private equity investor Royalty Pharma - that recently acquired the rights to royalties and milestones from two Zealand drugs - earns fortunes from royalties from the world's top-selling therapies, including the inflammation drug Humira.
Danish medtech company Ellipse becomes part of a US group. The company now expects to triple the production capacity. "They really know how to churn out products from their sales channels," says CEO Jacob Kildegaard Larsen.
Adaptvac, a joint venture between a Copenhagen University spinout and Danish Expres2ion, has taken out a patent in the US on a new breast cancer vaccine. "An important milestone," says the chairman.
Wealthy foreigners are keen on investing in promising Danish life science companies. This is according to Martin Rasmussen, who has 25 years of experience in London's investment banks and convinced a British family to invest in Copenhagen-based Immunitrack.
Upon a warning from FDA, the Danish Medicines Agency and EMA are currently investigating whether SGLT2 inhibitors have caused infections with carnivorous bacteria in the genitals of European patients.
Kirsten Drejer has left the board of directors in Symphogen, the company she founded in 2000 and managed for 16 years. She says goodbye due to the need for a leader who is ready for carrying out an IPO. However, she still feels closely connected to the company.
CEO in Symphogen, Martin Olin, does not want to reveal whether the company is approaching the stock market after several changes in the managing board. He says the company will provide more information soon.
Lacking interest from Danish investors is the reason why Danish life science companies deselect the domestic stock market. This is according to several companies that chose to go public in Sweden.
Analysis: Kåre Schultz and Anders Götszche put Lundbeck's finances in order. Yet, several major tasks await Deborah Dunsire, who took position as new CEO in the Danish drug group this week.
Danish company Suma Care that developed an "intelligent diaper" for the nursing care sector has received a million investment from former CMO in Pandora, Thomas Ryge, and the Zibrandtsen family's tech-hub inQvation. The company is now preparing for launching the product in the first European countries.
A new collaboration to identify small molecules against diabetes and secondary complications provides the framework for Novo Nordisk's future bet on oral drugs based on small molecules - a research field the company originally gave up in 2007.
Leo Pharma has signed a global licensing agreement for a new candidate. It will be the company's first tablet therapy against atopic dermatitis and a possible rival to a drug from Novatis.
For three decades, Jesper Høiland worked his way towards the top in Danish Novo Nordisk. He is now CEO in a US-based biotech company - a job that brings new challenges and more insecurity but also a lot more excitement and redemption. "I've never had more fun," says the center of attention.
Danish biotech company Y-mabs Therapeutics, led by one of the Genmab founders, is prepared for going public in the US. The plan is to raise more than DKK half a billion.
Two years after the start-up, Drugstars has recruited 110,000 users for an app rewarding patients for taking their medicine. Pharmaceutical companies now get the opportunity to buy a function preventing users from stopping exactly their treatment too soon.
Special lighting installations in hospitals have yielded millions in profit for Danish Chromaviso, and the company is ready for tripling the workforce as well as international expansions.
