Come year’s end, more than 100 Novo employees reporting to the Danish drugmaker’s outpost in Plainsboro, New Jersey, will be headed for the exit.
In a filing (PDF) with the state’s labor department, Novo disclosed 108 job cuts tied to the Plainsboro site, slated to take effect on Dec. 31 this year. Plainsboro, about 15 miles east of Princeton, is home to Novo’s headquarters in the United States.
"Novo regularly evaluates its organization to ensure we are positioned to meet evolving market dynamics and patient needs," a company spokesperson said in a statement confirming the layoff round. The move comes as Novo is "redesigning aspects of our US sales organization to create a more streamlined commercial model while maintaining our focus on serving patients, supporting healthcare professionals, and ultimately driving sustainable growth in the US."
"Decisions that affect employees are never taken lightly and we are treating impacted colleagues with respect and providing appropriate support throughout the transition," the spokesperson added.
The cuts in the Garden State follow broader restructuring efforts at the company.
A little over a year ago, CEO Mike Doustdar, who replaced Novo’s longtime helmsman Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen as the company sought to regain lost obesity ground to Eli Lilly, revealed plans to lay off roughly 9,000 employees across its global workforce, with 5,000 slated for its native Denmark.
At a Capital Markets Day last week, Doustdar commented that a “further 4,000 have left the company” since then, with the CEO noting that “these are not easy decisions for us, but they were necessary.” He framed the money saved through the downsizing as fuel for Novo’s R&D organization and a way to bolster the company’s competitive edge in a bustling GLP-1 market.
With those 13,000 layoffs in aggregate, Novo’s workforce as of last week stood around 66,000, representing about a 14% drop from the 77,000 staffers it boasted two years ago.
Under Doustdar’s guidance, Novo has taken several steps to reinvigorate its business over the past year, and the company has recently benefited from the revenue tailwind of a highly successful oral obesity medicine launch in the form of its Wegovy pill.
More recently, the company rebranded, removing “Nordisk” from its name for most day-to-day communications, alongside the introduction of refreshed corporate principles focused on customer obsession, competitiveness, clarity and, finally, care and integrity.
Speaking to Fierce about the recent shifts, Doustdar noted in September that “we make changes not for the sake of change” but instead “as a response to the environment we are in,” citing seismic shifts in the metabolic medicine field over the past three to four years.
“Internally and externally, there is a recognition that Novo Nordisk needs to rethink and revise some parts of its strategy,” he said at the time.
Editor's note: This story has been updated with additional detail from a Novo statement.