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ingredients, blue tie, revolutionizing the weight loss market and generating billions in sales. celebrities have helped their popularity sore. sharon osbourne, and elon musk of all publicly talked about taking it. it is a global phenomenon reaching millions on social media apps including tiktok it is not without controversy including possible side effects, high prices, and lobbying efforts receiving criticism around the world. and in some cases, patients might also need to take the drugs indefinitely to avoid regaining the weight. obesity is a disease and thinks the company will learn from its growing number of patients. >> when i asked they say it is quite a treatment. personal view is that they will

be different. we will have to build a portfolio. francine: on this episode, i traveled to the firm's headquarters in copenhagen, denmark. i asked about the global sensation, how he's navigating the company's meteor rise, and the sweeping changes they could bring across a range of industries. thank you so much for being on bloomberg with us. >> thanks for having me. francine: after decades of research basically nova finds a molecule that changes everything in terms of weight loss drugs. were you taken by surprise at the appetite for these drugs, and how mainstream they are? lars: there are many surprises when you get products like that. there are many shots being made and most fail.

the winner is often one that surprises people most. francine: why do you think this surprise or success was unexpected? did it capture something in society that you weren't ready for? lars: the first many decades of our company was focused on type one diabetes, then because of lifestyle changes, perhaps genetics, there was increase in type 2 diabetes. for many years, type 2 diabetes was not as intensively treated. then we showed we needed to treat type 2 diabetes to prevent comorbidities and that increased a lot. now we are kind of seeing the same with obesity. that for years we felt perhaps of the city is not a real disease but something you should treat, but it is now being established that actually by understanding the underlying causes of obesity, that there's a lot of things in play, for instance, genetics. but also innovation that can

actually treat the disease, help people reduce weight and prevent the comorbidities. so i think it is a repeat of what happened with type 2 diabetes and that opens and market that turns out to be way bigger than the diabetes market. francine: does it have lifelong treatment and how do you see that changing? lars: i think we are yet to learn how patient wellness will be much different. some will be on lifelong treatment. some will have progressive obesity that will keep you putting more weight on, but there are some were actually being on treatment for some time almost prevents them and they will have a different trajectory. i think we've seen much of this yet. i'm not a scientist myself. they say it is chronic treatment. my personal view is that we will

also learn that patients are much different and they world have different avenues, so we will have to go the portfolio of interventions. i think we can help many patient s get down to a weight that they can maintain and live the life they want to live. francine: we also heard from some of the food companies that the chief executives of some of the big groups are having crisis talks and does that mean there will be a wider adoption of these drugs? think it is of the changing our society? lars: i think with that comes opportunities. a preference for more of the healthy stuff.

for companies that is about following the trend in moving. another thing that is probably 80-20 perspective like in many other sectors you will have a few patients who are heavy consumers and within started treatment i think there will be a bigger impact on some of these companies. but i would say in general it is a bit hyped because we are only scratching the surface and the number of patients we are treating and it takes quite some time to scale manufacturing to get through many more millions of patients. francine: hollywood has also adopted your weight loss drugs. is that a good or bad thing? lars: we now have a situation where social media is filled with communication around our product and that is a completely new focus. we are focused on educating

physicians. in most countries we cannot do direct consumer advertisement and in all countries, we continue to understand which products are approved for type 2 diabetes, which are approved for obesity, what is the mechanism and how should they be? and we see the profile of those who use our medicines. that's also the approved label so if you're comfortable about it, it is people in need of medical intervention to treat serious obesity situations. francine: you've become such a phenomenon. it is all over social media and some are saying the problem with this is it could lead to more eating disorders. probably because of the increase in social media. can they do anything to balance

this? lars: we spent some time understanding what does this mean, and we've come to realize that we cannot control social media. we try to be present and get messaging in, but all i medicines, we really focus on the physicians to who are the mechanisms, the appropriate patients. then i think we have to also trust that they do what is right for their patient and they should for sure not prescribed people with eating disorders. francine: coming up, i ask about criticism the company has faced over its prices with some analysts predicting the weight loss industry could be worth $150 billion per year.

francine: globally, more than one billion people are thought to be obese. the challenges remain. the company patents expire at the end of the next decade. and rival drugs are already emerging. i ask the chief executive about regulatory pressures and future growth. so how do you think about pricing? you must run some difficult questions from governments but also this goes back to innovation. lars: most products are priced according to the value they bring. i feel overly good about the value of our medicines, but also the value to the health care system. and we have health care systems around the world who are designed for acute care, but

finding that 80% the cost of the health care system is linked to chronic care, and we have portfolio products that are really addressing some of the chronic diseases of our day and age. diabetes, obesity and the comorbidities that follow. we know there are predictions that say by 2035, the world obesity federation predicts that the cost burden to society would be $4 trillion. and that cost is going to a large degree be taken up by health care systems already starting today by aging populations. a shortage of labor. a lot of workers left the health care systems during the pandemic or after the pandemic so what is the value of the medicine we have and if you invest in that, yes, there is a cost upfront. maybe we can discuss how we deal

with that, but there is tremendous value in terms of preventing cost and keeping people out of the hospital. francine: but this is a crucial moment because price will probably go down as you have more competitors coming in. we know eli lilly can be a competitor so this is, i guess, the crucial time we have to make investment decisions when prices are high and you have more cash coming in. is that how you view it? lars: yes. to put a bit of color around, the same forecast predicts that there will be one billion people living with obesity in 2035. we are perhaps serving one million or 2 million of those today. so there is a huge opportunity and there is place for more. and then you are right that in most markets, pricing moves down because you start treating those who accept the higher price

point that is commercial insurance and overtime you get broad access and patients paying a lower price. so if you just take our leading diabetes product in the u.s. since launch, in 2018, the price we get after rebates is some 40% lower than the moon launch. that's often not mentioned. the list price is mentioned, which is not actually will be book in our account. francine: the u.s. is such a large market. would you ever do a list or even change headquarters to the u.s.? lars: that's unlikely. we are controlled by a foundation anchored in denmark. we have a lot of footprint in denmark. having said that, we do invest and expand a lot globally. most of what we sell in the u.s. we also produce in the u.s., so

in many aspects we are as much a u.s. company as a danish company. but the headquarters is based in denmark for the foreseeable future. francine: you think of denmark and you think of novo because of the size of revenue which is bigger than the gdp. is that uncomfortable? lars:lars: i think maybe the perspective should be corrected a bit. we all know that gdp is an economic matrix on a yearly basis in the market cap is confidential. if we compare with everything in denmark, we would be tiny. but of course there is also the point of our expansions. more than 30,000 in denmark, huge investment. we are fueling the gdp growth and you know we take that quite seriously.

so the jobs we create, i don't think they will disappear again. now we are talking about expanding in the u.s.. it doesn't come in the shape or form, it is growth in the u.s. we will be careful and respectful in how we grow so we can do that in a sustainable way. francine: and that's also increasing supply with new factories. lars: we have made huge investment decisions. these are billion-dollar commitments per year, and it takes four or five years to build some of these facilities. we started already years back so we have more and more lines kicking in on ongoing basis. francine: are you also looking for acquisitions? lars: yes, we are.

most of the products we have came from our in-house efforts, which is a bit unusual compared to some of our peers. we expect to carry on with that, but we can also see that we can complement that. specifically, it will be early stage biotech where they have great science, we have the understanding, the infrastructure. we can express that science in a better way than they could do on their own. so emerging makes a perfect marriage and some of the parts are bigger than what each could do on their own. francine: our former companies having a harder time after covid ? vaccines being questioned. have you felt any backlash? lars:lars: to me that is a really sad situation to be in because had it not been for some

of the very -- teaming up with some of the largest forces of our industry to in record time to get approval in scaling manufacturing. i think the world would have looked much different today and i respect that some do not like vaccines but the majority of us hand trusted and that led to a lot of debate about patents really being needed. there's not going to be innovation, so there will be no new products. something about equality, how we distribute products and honestly i think a lot of the rich countries ended up grabbing products for their own published at the expense of some of the developing countries that did

not get access which leads to a debate whether ip is the right way to go, but that for me is the wrong discussion. we have to figure out how can we show solidarity in a way where we also acknowledge that the whole world needs to benefit in a fair way but if you take the incentive away from innovation, we all will suffer. francine: coming up, lars tells me about his leadership style at the head of europe's most valuable company.

francine: the market value of novo nordisk is big and danish economy and its philanthropic organization is now the world's largest. i ask how he handles the company's success in his approach to corporate culture. are you enjoying success or does it also bring a lot of responsibility? lars: i took over as ceo at a time where our price had been cut by 40%. no growth, no single-digit growth and it is much harder to invest in the business, do the things you want to do compared. i enjoy that but obviously it also comes with many challenges about how to sustain a company that is enjoying success. francine: what kind of leader

are you? what kind of leader with your employees say you are? lars: you should ask them. i hope they would say that i'm authentic, and relatively easy to read. i would also hope they say that i'm curious, and i found that there is not yet been a problem in the company the consult if we actually mobilized the right people. so i'm born with a big nose and big years and i use the attributes of that each and every day to collect opinions from the company. and that is my role to combine it into an opinion together with my team and make sure that we make the right choice. francine: so does the perfect leader in 2024 need to be a visionary or a problem solver?

lars: i would say if i have to solve the problems it is a problem because when covid-19 arrived, decided to close down the offices we cap manufacturing and we all went home. and what you do, you need to establish a crisis team to deal with that. the first decision i made was i should not be part of that. francine: why? lars: i was a bit out of the loop for a couple days but i knew if i put myself into that i would become the bottleneck in the company and the company would have lost its ceo. so i asked our cfo to chair that and then i could still be there for everybody and people come to me and check in and i try to get a view for what our.

i think the company needs another ceo. i believe i have. when i was promoted, i took a step up. i think they would tell me today that they would have liked me maybe to be a bit quicker act like the boss. but from the not natural to just be bossy after one night. i feel more comfortable today actually listening to my gut just a combination of your own feelings but also your experiences and earlier say what i believe in, and that creates clarity for an organization.

francine: saturday mornings i understand you have off. lars: saturday is always a day i powered down. i run at a relatively high pace throughout the week, try to wrap things up, and saturday is a quiet day for me in terms of work. i start typically by playing tennis with my wife. we go for a swim all year-round. after that have a nice lunch and then i'm on to trajectory for the week and then sunday i try to prepare for the coming weeks. but through a weekend i would send either no emails were very few emails because i want to drive a culture where all get an opportunity to spend the weekend as they fancy. what we do is so difficult and takes so much creative thinking to succeed that if you are always on, always busy, it is

just too narrow. and i generally believe that monday mornings i am a better leader than i am friday afternoon. i want to take all my vacations. i generally believe i'm a much better ceo right after vacation then and before vacation. francine: what is the best and worst piece of advice you've ever received? lars: the best advice would probably be give people a fair chance to succeed. and most can actually do much better. perhaps you also believe based on short-term performance. so trust people and give them what is needed for them to succeed. we will see people succeeding. the worst piece would be

something that was influenced by politics or spinning facts. i'm hyper allergic to politics and when you try to take advantage of a position. i've had one experience during my career where i gave my resignation because somebody come a close colleague completely twisted in facts. we had just agreed had to approach than we met with our share price and my colleague just turned it around. i said ok, if people play tricks, it's not my game whatever. i said ok, i'm out of here. so any advice that is not based on decency and following the

facts. francine: thank you so much for your time today. want to save on some of the biggest names in streaming on the network made for streaming? x marks the spot. now you can add the new xfinity streamsaver™ that includes netflix, peacock, and apple tv+. that's xfinity streamsaver™ for just $15 a month. all your favorites. all in one place. only from xfinity. for more watching and less spending... x marks the spot. do it all on the network made for streaming, and bring on the good stuff.

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