Ozempic maker Novo Nordisk to lay off up to 150 people in India as part of global cuts

Junior- to mid-level employees across functions such as sales and marketing, as well as those in the company’s global business services (GBS) hub, which works with its global teams, have been impacted, according to at least three people aware of the development.

“At least 100-150 will be retrenched from the commercial unit, which largely includes sales and marketing roles. They are expected to be in junior and middle order, and this is part of the global retrenchment,” an industry executive aware of the development told Mint.

The Danish drugmaker planned to cut 9,000 jobs or 11% of its workforce in September, which would save it 8 billion Danish krone ($1.25 billion) annually. The announcement came as the company struggles with increasing competition from rivals like Eli Lilly in the highly lucrative obesity segment.

“We have announced that the total number of intended workforce reductions globally is approximately 9,000. Out of respect for the employees involved, we will not share additional details about individual sites or areas. This process takes time, and our highest priority is to support our employees,” the company said in an emailed response to Mint’s queries on the India layoffs.

The layoffs come as the pharma giant plans to launch its blockbuster once-a-week weight loss drug Ozempic in India soon. The Indian drug regulator approved it last month, and the launch is imminent.

Novo Nordisk launched Wegovy, another once-a-week injectable, in India in July even as competitor Eli Lily’s drug Mounjaro was gaining significant ground.

Wegovy and Ozempic are brand names for the compound semaglutide. The company also sells Rybelsus, an oral version of semaglutide, in India since 2022. Novo Nordisk is set to lose patent exclusivity for semaglutide in March 2026, opening the floodgates for cheaper generics to enter the market. Top drugmakers like Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd, Cipla Ltd, Mankind Pharma Ltd, Zydus Lifesciences Ltd and Lupin Ltd aim to be among the first launches of the generic drug.

Global struggle

Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide, initially indicated for treating type-2 diabetes, had emerged as a wonder drug for weight loss, leading to the company’s fortunes soaring in the last five years.

It nearly doubled its global workforce from 2019 to 2024 to meet rapid demand growth. However, competition from Eli Lilly’s products like Zepbound and Mounjaro, as well as cheaper copycat compounds in the US have been weighing on the company’s growth since last year.

The global job cuts announced by the company last month are part of a “company-wide transformation to simplify its organization, improve the speed of decision-making, and reallocate resources towards the company’s growth opportunities in diabetes and obesity,” it said in a statement.

India war

In India, Novo Nordisk’s rival American pharma giant Eli Lilly launched its weight loss drug Mounjaro in March, gaining first-mover advantage. India, with over 254 million obese people and over 100 million diabetics, is considered to be a lucrative market for weight-loss drugs, with analysts expecting the category to grow to ₹10,000 crore in the next two to three years.

As of August, Mounjaro’s total sales in the country were ₹150 crore, while Wegovy had racked up ₹19 crore in sales, according to data from Pharmarack.

“Novo is preparing itself for a transition as Semaglutide goes off patent in multiple markets and they face growth pressure in existing markets (US, EU) as Eli Lilly is challenging them. The competition is only going to get more intense going forward in the GLP-1 category,” said Vishal Manchanda, pharma analyst at Systematix Group.

While there is headroom for massive volume growth, the drugmaker will need “cost discipline” to be able to profitably expand in the space, which is already seeing pricing pressure with increasing competition, he said.

On the manufacturing front, the company is completely integrated and has the scale to effectively compete with any player, Manchanda said. “They are currently realigning their corporate and marketing overheads so that they remain lean and can respond with agility to competitive actions with respect to pricing.”