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Novo Nordisk’s obesity-fighting drugs fatten Denmark’s economy | 60 Minutes
Novo Nordisk’s blockbuster drugs Ozempic and Wegovy have slimmed down Hollywood stars and millions of non-celebrities worldwide — all while adding great heft to Denmark’s economy.
Novo Nordisk now has a market cap of $600 billion, injecting a welcome dose of wealth into the Baltic nation while creating thousands of new jobs, bolstering national pension plans and keeping mortgage rates low.
Shrinking waistlines and industries
Denmark is home to six million of the world’s wealthiest and healthiest people, and less than 1% of Novo’s sales come from inside the country where the company was founded in the 1920s.
Novo Nordisk is investing billions of dollars into new plants in the port city Kalundborg on the Danish seaside.
But just a few miles down the road from the construction cranes sits a quintessential Scandinavian institution: a folk school that serves as a residential health facility for the small portion of Danes who are diagnosed with obesity. Recently, enrollment has declined by almost half.
Many of those empty beds are being filled by newly recruited Novo employees as they try to find permanent housing.
Lars Jorgensen, who’s been a therapist and life coach at the facility for 20 years, knew Ozempic and Wegovy’s success could impact the facility. For many, the new weight-loss drugs may be the answer to their health issues, but he hopes some potential students will think twice before taking these drugs for life.
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“Because they still have the problem,” he said. “The obesity is just a symptom.”
On a more macro level, Novo Nordisk’s runaway success is beginning to shrink entire sectors of the global economy. In a world where people are less hungry, fast food chains and big box stores have been forced to tighten their belts.
Wealth, the Danish way
Novo Nordisk’s recent success is a point of pride in Denmark. The company is Europe’s largest and its market cap is larger than the entire country’s GDP.
“Everybody has the feeling that this will go on forever,” Danish neurologist and writer Peter Lund Madsen said.
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Madsen, who has stock in the company, is particularly proud that Novo Nordisk is now bigger than any firms their neighbors the Swedes have.
“They’ve always had cars and airplanes and big companies,” he said. “But now we have Novo.”
U.S. and European law enforcement agencies are working together to investigate whether incendiary devices detonated in July at DHL logistics hubs in Germany and the U.K. were part of a larger operation directed by Russian Intelligence services (in particular, the GRU — Russian military intelligence), the highest level of the Russian government or by outside individuals acting in the interests of Russia, a source familiar with the matter said.
Officials are working to determine whether the larger operation was to place similar devices on aircraft servicing the U.S. and U.S. allies. The Wall Street Journal first reported the alleged plot targeting U.S. aircraft.
The 2025 Homeland Threat Assessment published at the end of October said the U.S. continues to be concerned about threats to the aviation and air cargo systems, including the “potential use of the air cargo supply chain to ship concealed dangerous and potentially deadly items.”
DHL said in a statement that it was aware “of two recent incidents involving shipments in our network. We are fully cooperating with the relevant authorities to protect our people, our network and our customers’ shipments.”
“We continually adjust our security posture as appropriate and promptly share any and all relevant information with our industry partners, to include requirements and recommendations that help them reduce risk,” the Transportation Security Administration said in a statement.
“Over the past several months, as part of a multi-layered security approach, TSA worked with industry partners to put additional security measures for U.S. aircraft operators and foreign air carriers regarding certain cargo shipments bound for the United States, in line with the 2021 TSA Air Cargo Security Roadmap,” the TSA’s statement continued.
The FBI declined to comment.
contributed to this report.
Boeing’s 33,000 unionized machinists on Wednesday voted to approve the plane manufacturer’s latest contract offer, ending a seven-week strike that had halted production of most of the company’s passenger planes.
The union said 59% voted to accept the contract. Members have the option of returning to work as soon as Wednesday, but must be back at work by Tuesday, November 12, the union said in a statement.
Union leaders had strongly urged members to ratify the latest proposal, which would boost wages by 38% over the four-year life of the contract, up from a proposed increase of 35% that members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) had rejected last month.
The revised deal also provides a $12,000 cash bonus to hourly workers and increased contributions to retirement savings plans. The enhanced offer doesn’t address a key sticking point in the contentious talks — restoration of pensions — but Boeing would raise its contributions to employee 401K plans.
Average annual pay for machinists, now $75,608, would climb to $119,309 in four years under the current offer, Boeing said.
The vote came after IAM members in September and October rejected lesser offers by the Seattle-based aerospace giant.
“In every negotiation and strike, there is a point where we have extracted everything we can in bargaining and by withholding our labor,” the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers stated last week in backing Boeing’s revised offer. “We are at that point now and risk a regressive or lesser offer in the future.”
Acting U.S. Labor Secretary Julie Su has played an active role in the negotiations, after recently helping to end a days-long walkout that briefly closed East and Gulf Coast ports.
The Boeing strike that began on Sept. 13 marked the latest setback for the manufacturing giant, which has been the focus of multiple federal probes after a door plug blew off a 737 Max plane during an Alaska Airlines flight in January. The incident revived concerns about the safety of the aircraft after two crashed within five months in 2018 and 2019, killing 346 people.
Boeing in July agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud for deceiving regulators who approved the 737 Max.
During the strike, Boeing was unable to produce any new 737 aircraft, which are made at the company’s assembly plants in the Seattle area. One major Boeing jet, the 787 Dreamliner, is manufactured at a nonunion factory in South Carolina.
The company last month reported a third-quarter loss of $6.1 billion.
contributed to this report.
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