Novo’s CEO Mike Doustdar laid out a strategic growth plan for the company, which included a plan to launch more than five multi-blockbusters by 2030 and expand beyond its obesity and diabetes franchise. Will he and the company be able to deliver?

By Patricia Van Arnum, Editorial Director, DCAT, [email protected]

Novo outlines strategic plan
Novo (the new brand name for Novo Nordisk) hosted a Capital Markets Day this week (September 21, 2025) in which the company provided an update to its corporate strategy and strategic ambitions for 2030.

A key element of its strategic plan is a goal to launch more than five blockbusters by 2030 and to deliver more than DKK 150 billion ($22.86 billion) in sales from its pipeline by 2035. This would be achieved by growing, diversifying and advancing its pipeline, which would include not only leveraging its obesity and diabetes franchise but also in growing in other therapeutic areas. Its plan involves advancing more than five Phase III programs in obesity and diabetes and more than five Phase III programs in other therapeutic areas. This entails a goal of scaling capacity to be able to serve 10 times more people with obesity on oral (glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) medicines in the 2026–2030 time frame and overall serving more than 60 million patients globally by 2030.  

In its obesity and diabetes franchise, Novo’s focus is two-fold: expand its position in the injectables market beyond semaglutide, the active ingredient in its blockbuster obesity/Type 2 diabetes drug, Wegovy/Ozempic, and expand its position in the oral obesity drug market, which includes the already marketed oral form of Wegovy (semaglutide).

Novo says it is planning at least one major blockbuster obesity launch per year through 2030. This includes CagriSema (cagrilintide and semaglutide) in 2027, cagrilintide (as a monotherapy) in 2028, zenagamtide in 2029, and other drugs with novel mechanisms of action in 2030 and beyond. CagriSema (cagrilintide and semaglutide) is a once-weekly injectable combination drug candidate for Type 2 diabetes and obesity, which pairs the amylin analog, cagrilintide, with the GLP-1 receptor agonist, semaglutide. Novo filed a new drug application with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in December 2025 for CagriSema for weight management. A decision is expected in the fourth quarter of 2026. Novo is also developing cagrilintide as a standalone treatment, which is Phase III development. Its other key drug candidate, zenagamtide, also known as amycretin, is an unimolecular peptide agonist of GLP-1 and amylin receptor under clinical trial development with separate programs to investigate treatment for adults with Type 2 diabetes and for adults with overweight or obesity. Zenagamtide is under investigation for both oral and subcutaneous administration.

Outside of obesity and diabetes, Novo is looking to build its position in three main therapeutic areas: blood and endocrine disorders, liver disease, and cardiovascular disease. The company has multiple late-stage assets in its blood and endocrine disorder franchise and has a goal of increasing its blood and endocrine disorder business by 50% by 2030 from a 2026 base. Its lead product in this franchise is denecimig, an investigational, bispecific antibody Factor VIIIa (FVIIIa) mimetic, designed as a routine prophylaxis to prevent or reduce the frequency of bleeding episodes in adults, adolescents, and children with hemophilia A (congenital FVIIIa deficiency), with or without inhibitors. A biologics license application for denecimig is currently under review with FDA. It is administered under the skin in a single-dose, prefilled disposable pen, denecimig bridges Factor IXa and Factor X. This action mimics FVIIIa function, which helps restore the body’s thrombin generation capacity, helping blood to clot.

Novo reported earlier this month (September 2026) that the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) issued a positive opinion recommending marketing authorization for Frehemgo (denecimig) to treat hemophilia A, with or without inhibitors, in adults and children. Once approved in the European Union (EU), Novo says it expects to launch the drug in the first European countries in the fourth quarter of 2026 and broadly across the EU starting in early 2027. Novo says it is the first FVIIIa mimetic to offer once-monthly, once-every-two-weeks and once-weekly prophylaxis in a single-use pre-filled pen.

An additional plank in Novo’s growth strategy is to grow its direct-to-consumer capabilities for its prescription drugs by increasing its business through telehealth channels.

Building through partnerships
Novo is also building its portfolio through partnerships. Earlier this month (September 2026), Novo has announced an asset purchase agreement to acquire three investigational obesity drug programs initiated by Kallyope, a New York-based bio/pharmaceutical company, according to Jacob Petersen, Senior Vice President and Head of Global Research at Novo, who disclosed the deal in a September 18 LinkedIn post. The programs target non-incretin approaches to obesity and include a peptide program, a follow-on small molecule program directed to a novel target, and another small-molecule receptor agonist program in lead optimization. The lead peptide-based candidate, K-554, is investigational new drug-ready.

In addition, this week (September 24, 2026), Novo inked a deal with Nanexa, a Swedish drug-delivery platform company developing long-acting injectable drugs based on its proprietary PharmaShell technology platform for a global exclusive license and collaboration agreement for the use of the PharmaShell technology platform for certain peptide-based drugs targeting obesity, Type 2 diabetes and other cardiometabolic indications.Under the agreement, Novo receives a global license to use Nanexa’s PharmaShell technology platform in up to five development programs. The collaboration includes development of long-acting injectable formulations with different administration-frequency profiles, with monthly and quarterly administration as target profiles. Under the deal Nanexa is eligible to receive total payments of up to EUR 1.165 billion ($1.33 billion), including EUR 615 million ($700 million) in upfront payment and development and regulatory milestones. The remaining milestone payments are sales milestones. In addition, Nanexa is eligible to receive low single-digit royalties on global net sales of products developed under the agreement.

In addition, earlier this month (September 2026), the company inked a deal with Orbis Medicines, a Copenhagen, Denmark-based company specializing in oral macrocycle drug discovery, to discover and develop oral macrocycle therapeutics for cardiometabolic diseases, in a deal worth up to $1.4 billion (in undisclosed upfront and potential development and commercial milestone payments). Novo will also make an undisclosed strategic investment in Orbis Medicines. 

The collaboration will use Orbis Medicines’ proprietary nGen platform, which is used for generating nCycles, a new class of fully synthetic macrocycle compounds optimized for oral bioavailability and membrane permeability. Under the agreement, Orbis Medicines is eligible to receive up to $1.4 billion in upfront and potential development and commercial milestone payments, in addition to tiered royalties on future product sales. 

In addition, Novo announced that it has formed a collaboration with the high-tech and AI company, Anthropic, to help Novo accelerate the development of new medicines and advance AI-driven software development. The companies will jointly address key drug-discovery challenges identified by scientists and computational teams at Novo, develop targeted solutions for specific scientific challenges and workflows to support biological reasoning, and help accelerate the discovery and development of new medicines. As an initial aim, Novo will test Claude Science for specific workflows in R&D and address scientific problems where the joint capabilities of Novo and Anthropic are expected to have the greatest impact.