MedWatch News

If it hadn’t been for a large layer of concrete in the partition between the roof and the second floor of a building that caught fire at Novo Nordisk’s construction site in Kalundborg Kommune in May, the fire could have led to an explosion with severe consequences. The building was used to store both gas and ammonia containers. “Even small quantities can, in the worst-case scenario, cause such extensive damage to a building that there is a risk of collapse, and potential fragments from the containers and the building can be hurled hundreds of meters away,” says Brian Mailund, head of Fire Technical Operations Consulting at DBI – the Danish Institute of Fire and Security Technology (DBI - Dansk Brand- og sikringsteknisk Institut), to MedWatch. Novo Nordisk declined to comment on information in a police report regarding ammonia and gas containers stored in the burning building in Kalundborg.

The suspect arrived five minutes before the director and, according to police, carried out a targeted attack firing two gunshots.

Overall, tirzepatide produced a 47% greater relative weight loss compared to semaglutide, according to Eli Lilly and Company. 

Several law professors question whether gender discrimination is taking place in Demant's top management, as the female successor to the director position in the diagnostics division is not, unlike her predecessor, made a member of the executive board. "There is absolutely no doubt that such a move is not permissible. It violates both the principle of equal treatment in Article 21 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and the Equal Treatment Directive," says Kirsten Ketscher, a researcher and lecturer in anti-discrimination and equality law at the Centre for Legal Studies in Welfare and Markets at the Faculty of Law, University of Copenhagen (Københavns Universitet). Anne-Karen Hunt took over as the new director responsible for the diagnostics business unit on November 1. Demant’s CEO Søren Nielsen emphasizes in a written statement that the German director remains part of the top management team, even though she is not part of the executive board like the rest of the senior management. "For now, she is not registered with legal responsibility, but this does not change the fact that she holds strategic responsibility and is included in the top management team," he writes. Both law professor Stine Jørgensen, Rikke Agervig Helles, who is legal director at the union Lederne - Danmarks største lederorganisation – Denmark's largest management organization – and law professor Kirsten Ketscher explain that the equal treatment legislation originates from the EU and has been incorporated into Danish law for decades. Demant's communications director, Trine Kromann-Mikkelsen, states that the hearing aid company will soon present entirely new and updated targets for gender balance in the company's senior management. "In connection with our upcoming annual reporting, we will present new, more ambitious goals for gender balance in senior management," she writes. At the The Danish Institute for Human Rights - International Activities, Rasmus Brygger, head of the Equal Treatment Department, explains that the case is unlikely to be decided by the Equal Treatment Board unless Anne-Karen Hunt wishes to bring it forward herself.

All trading in Longboard Pharmaceuticals’s shares on the Nasdaq stock exchange in the US has been suspended, after Lundbeck has completed the acquisition.

Revenue from the divested products in the skin care business amounted to around DKK 400m (USD 56.52m) in financial year 2023/24. “It is about simplifying operations and improving profitability,” the medtech company tells MedWatch.

Eli Lilly and Company’s senior medical director for Nordic countries Lars-Petter Strand thinks that the new head-to-head study makes it easier for doctors to recommend either Lilly’s or Novo’s obesity drugs to individual patients. “The result is another piece of data that can help doctors make informed decisions. And then they have to decide how to weigh this data against others. But I think it’s important data, and it’s clearly a positive result for tirzepatide in this particular study,” says Strand. 

This week, LEO Pharma is launching JAK inhibitor Anzupgo on the German market. 

Lundbeck continues to monitor acquisition opportunities following the proposed acquisition of Longboard Pharmaceuticals – the largest acquisition in its history.

The acquisition could give Novo Nordisk an illegal advantage in the weight-loss drug market, says US Senator Elizabeth Warren.