Wegovy maker Novo sharpens consumer focus with board role for Mars CEO

By Stine Jacobsen and Maggie Fick

COPENHAGEN, March 26 (Reuters) – Novo Nordisk has appointed Poul Weihrauch, CEO of U.S. candy giant Mars, as board observer as the Danish drugmaker seeks to strengthen its position in the highly competitive U.S. obesity market.

The maker of weight-loss drug Wegovy announced the appointment at Thursday’s annual general meeting, where shareholders also elected pharmaceutical veterans Jan van de Winkel and Ramona Sequeira to the board, along with Helena Saxon, a board member at fashion retailer H&M.

Novo Nordisk and its majority shareholder, the Novo Nordisk Foundation, carried out a leadership shake-up last year, replacing the CEO and restructuring the board. This included the consolidation of Lars Rebien Sorensen’s leadership role through his appointment as board chairman in addition to his role of chairman of the foundation.

NOVO AIMS TO BOOST CONSUMER CREDENTIALS 

Sorensen has promised to strengthen the board’s pharmaceutical and commercial expertise after criticising the previous board for being slow to address U.S. market challenges.

Novo is trying to boost consumer credentials in the U.S. market in a number of ways under its new management. In January it launched its Wegovy pill across multiple cash-pay channels, rather than solely through traditional insurance routes.

The company is leaning into telehealth, retail partnerships and direct-to-consumer access, as well as cutting prices under pressure from the Trump administration and to win cash-pay patients. Novo and chief rival Eli Lilly and Co have said the obesity market is becoming increasingly consumer-driven. 

“We need to start to see our community more as customers than as patients,” Sorensen told reporters after Thursday’s meeting, adding that it was studying consumer behaviour to better understand what drives people to seek treatment, where they prefer to access it and when they are most likely to buy. 

Sorensen said that Novo had looked at over-the-counter medicines for insight but added that companies in fast-moving consumer goods may provide a closer comparison because of their expertise in tracking purchasing habits and identifying unmet demand. 

Those kinds of consumer insights could improve how Novo addresses the needs of overweight people and identify where GLP-1 drugs or other treatments might fit, Sorensen said.

Asked about the apparent contradictions in the appointment of a confectionery company executive by a manufacturer of obesity drugs, Sorensen said both types of companies are highly sophisticated in understanding customers and their needs.

NOVO MAY PURSUE “CONSUMER-ORIENTED” ACQUISITIONS

Asked about M&A priorities, Sorensen said Novo sees opportunities beyond weight loss in obesity-related conditions including cardiovascular, kidney and liver disease, as well as joint problems and inflammatory conditions like psoriasis.

Novo does not plan to pursue cancer despite the higher cancer risk linked to obesity, he said.

Novo may focus on treatments for obesity-related conditions that could be more “consumer-oriented” and suited to digital platforms that give Novo direct access to patients, Sorensen said, but declined to elaborate. “Let’s talk about this in September,” he said, referring to the company’s capital markets day scheduled for September 21.

(Reporting by Stine Jacobsen and Maggie FickEditing by Anna Ringstrom, Barbara Lewis, David Goodman and Andrei Khalip)