One hundred years after being founded in Denmark, Novo Nordisk has suddenly become Europe’s most valuable public company and larger than the country’s economy, fuelled by the potential of its “wonder” weight-loss drug Wegovy.
Shares in the Danish pharmaceutical group continued to hit new highs this week in Copenhagen and its market value of about $438 billion has overtaken LVMH, the French luxury conglomerate that includes Louis Vuitton and Dior.
The company has become bigger than European behemoths such as Nestle and L’Oreal and is the second biggest pharmaceuticals company in the world, ahead of the American giants Johnson & Johnson and Merck, according to figures from FactSet.
Novo’s rise has been driven by breakthroughs in the fast-growing obesity drugs market, which for years was
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