Soaring sales of celebrity-endorsed pharmaceuticals have sparked fears that Denmark’s economy risks a similar fate to its Nordic counterpart Finland, whose over-reliance on Nokia led to a lost decade when the phonemaker’s fortunes turned.
Ozempic, a diabetes treatment that celebrities take to lose weight, and Wegovy, an anti-obesity pill, have propelled Novo Nordisk to become Europe’s most valuable company and single-handedly stopped Denmark from falling into recession.
At $410bn, Novo Nordisk’s market capitalisation is now larger than Denmark’s annual GDP of $400bn last year, raising concerns among officials and business figures that the country’s fortunes have become too closely tied to a single company.