We will be the world’s leading diabetes care company. Our aspiration is to defeat diabetes by finding better methods of diabetes prevention, detection and treatment. We will work actively to promote collaboration between all parties in the healthcare system in order to achieve our common goals.

19,241 employees in 69 countries - Performance highlights

With headquarters in Denmark, Novo Nordisk employs 19,241 people, has affiliates or offices in 69 countries, and markets its products in 179 countries.

Novo Nordisk is a healthcare company and a world leader in diabetes care. The company has the broadest diabetes product portfolio in the industry, including the most advanced products within the area of insulin delivery systems. In addition, Novo Nordisk has a leading position within areas such as haemostasis management, growth hormone therapy and hormone replacement therapy. Novo Nordisk manufactures and markets pharmaceutical products and services that make a significant difference to patients, the medical profession and society.

Novo Nordisk has a strong background in diabetes care, with more than 80 years’ experience in this area. It began in 1922 when August Krogh, Danish Nobel laureate in physiology, and his wife Marie, who had type 2 diabetes, visited the Canadian researchers Frederick Banting and Charles Best. Banting and Best had begun extracting insulin from the pancreas of cows the previous year. The Kroghs returned home and the following year August Krogh set up a company in Denmark called Nordisk Insulinlaboratorium that began producing insulin for the treatment of diabetes. In 1925 two former employees, the brothers Harald and Thorvald Pedersen, formed a competing insulin company of their own, Novo Terapeutisk Laboratorium. In 1989, the two Danish companies joined forces to become Novo Nordisk A/S.

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With headquarters in Denmark, Novo Nordisk employs 19,241 people, has affiliates or offices in 69 countries, and markets its products in 179 countries. About two thirds of the workforce is in Denmark. While 99% of sales are outside Denmark, most of the production is located at sites in Denmark. The remaining production sites are in China, Brazil, France, Japan, South Africa and the US.

Our worldwide market share in diabetes care is 17%. Market expansion is strongest in the US, Asia and South America, where the number of people with diabetes is growing at an alarming rate. In 2003, a new facility was built in China, and expansion of production began in France, the US and Brazil. With a net turnover in 2003 of DKK 27 billion and profits of DKK 5 billion, our performance compares well with the industry. Novo Nordisk is ranked number 26 among the world’s pharmaceutical companies, measured by sales.

We have gathered highlights of our financial, environmental and social performance in a table.

Performance highlights 
(click to view as pdf file)