Recently, Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen received a letter from Bernie Sanders. „Help the American people in the fight against the obesity and diabetes epidemic in our country,“ the US senator appealed to the head of the pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk. He was talking about the extremely high prices for the weight-loss drug Wegovy.

High drug prices have been bankrupting US health insurance companies, and the cost of Wegovy excludes inadequately insured Americans from using the drug. According to Sanders, the Danish pharmaceutical company's drugs – Wegovy and the related diabetes preparation Ozempic – are many times more expensive in the USA than in other countries. Politicians have talked about „predatory pricing“ because Novo Nordisk is using its monopoly to maximise profits.

And profit is certainly being made under the aegis of President and CEO Fruergard Jørgensen (57). The obesity epidemic, which is not only rampant in the USA, has brought the Danish pharmaceutical company record figures quarter after quarter, and last autumn the company replaced the luxury group LVMH as the most valuable listed company in Europe. Novo Nordisk's market capitalisation currently stands at 436 billion euros. Half of the GDP growth of 2.4% expected by Denmark in the current year is attributed to Novo Nordisk's success. Between 2020 and 2023, the pharmaceutical group's net profit doubled from 42 billion Danish kroner (5.6 billion euros) to almost 84 billion kroner, while the net margin reached 36% last year. As head of the company, which benefits from huge demand, Fruergaard Jørgensen also earns handsomely. Last year, he earned 8.1 million euros including variable remuneration.

However, Novo Nordisk does not want to rely solely on its anti-obesity drugs. This spring it was announced that the Danes were acquiring Hanover based start-up Cardior Pharmaceuticals. The purchase price amounts to more than 1 billion euros. With this acquisition, Fruergaard Jørgensen wants to strengthen the group's position in the field of cardiovascular diseases, and also to prepare for future headwinds. In China alone, at least 15 generic versions of the profit-generating drugs Ozempic and Wegovy are currently in development, Reuters recently reported, based on clinical trial registers. Novo Nordisk has high hopes for the Chinese market, although the patent for the active ingredient semaglutide used in the drugs expires in 2026.

Fruergaard Jørgensen, who has led the Danish company since the beginning of 2017, has been with Novo Nordisk for over 30 years. He started his first job here in 1991 after studying business administration. Jørgensen, who is almost 2 metres tall, grew up on a farm where his parents raised cattle and pigs. He and his three sisters helped out there at weekends and during the school holidays. Today, the married father of two grown-up children still lives in the countryside in a suburb of Copenhagen.

The wiry Novo Nordisk boss himself is unlikely to have any personal experience of obesity. He pays attention to a healthy diet, and plays sport in his presumably limited free time – kayaking, tennis, cycling and gardening are all on the programme. The pharmaceuticals boss has a very special preference for breakfast, as he revealed to The Times in an interview last year: „A bowl of overnight oats“, in other words oatmeal mixed with milk or water and left to stand overnight – very low in calories. According to this interview, the 57-year-old likes rye bread and herring for lunch and something similarly healthy in the evening.

It is not known whether Bernie Sanders' appeal to Fruergaard Jørgensen will bear fruit. However, the pharmaceuticals manager always emphasises that the fight against diabetes and obesity is not just about profit. „If our business continues to grow, then our role in society will also grow,“ the CEO was quoted as saying in the 2023 annual report.