Nordisk is looking for deals more than ever, the Danish drugmaker's CEO said Wednesday in an interview with CNBC.
“If our ambition is to help hundreds of millions of patients, then we need not only the best, but also the widest channel in the world,” said Novo Nordisk CEO Mike Doustdar. “So we're going to see who else basically has assets that are complementary to what we have. And we're pretty active with those.” [business development] conversations and acquisitions, and we will see more of them in the future.
Novo created the GLP-1 weight loss drug market with its weekly Ozempic and Wegovy injections. More recently, the company has faced concerns from analysts about whether Novo's product portfolio is strong enough to remain a leader in the increasingly competitive obesity drug space.
Mike Doustdar, CEO of Novo Nordisk A/S, during an interview in New York, U.S., Wednesday, February 11, 2026.
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | fake images
Rival Eli Lilly has already surpassed Novo in market share for weekly GLP-1 injections, although Novo has taken an early lead in the new category of GLP-1 weight loss pills.
Doustdar said he disagrees with concerns about Novo's upcoming treatments, arguing that the drugmaker has “one of the best pipelines in the industry.” He pointed to Novo's CagriSema, a drug candidate targeting GLP-1 and amylin, which Novo expects to be approved later this year, and an experimental drug targeting amylin called zenagamtide whose development Novo has accelerated, among other assets.
“Of course, there are a lot of things in my portfolio that I have knowledge of right now to investigate and be excited about, but that I haven't shared with the world yet,” he said. “So I'm incredibly excited about our pipeline and I would just tell investors who are a little skeptical to wait and see.”
Doustdar spoke to CNBC after the company said its Wegovy pill performed better than expected in the first quarter and raised its full-year profit guidance.
