‘Treating obesity for the next 100 years’: Ozempic-maker Novo Nordisk targets tripling of Apac patient base

By sales volumes for its GLP-1 drugs, the company’s largest markets in the region are Australia, Japan, South Korea and India

With hundreds of millions living with obesity and diabetes across the Asia-Pacific region, Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk believes there is significant scope for growth in demand for its treatments – and in the process, an opportunity to triple the number of patients it serves in the next few years.

The company’s anti-obesity and diabetes management drugs are currently used by “less than five million patients” across the Asia-Pacific markets where it has a presence. This is out of a pool of roughly 400 million people in the region living with obesity and another 150 million managing diabetes.

“We’ve been sustained on treating diabetes for the last 100 years, and we’ll probably be able to sustain treating obesity for the next 100 years as well,” said Jay Thyagarajan, senior vice-president for Asia-Pacific at Novo Nordisk, in a recent interview with The Business Times.

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