Scientist behind Ozempic started her career developing laundry detergent

Ozempic and Wegovy whitethorn not person been developed if not for nan insistence of Novo Nordisk's caput of research, Mads Krogsgaard.

Leadership astatine nan Danish institution successful nan early 1990s were skeptical astir processing narcotics to dainty obesity. Krogsgaard saw things differently. 

"I started trying to person them that it's not getting connected nan bike," Krogsgaard said. "If you're genetically predisposed, surviving successful nan situation we are successful today, you are astatine very precocious risk. And thing should beryllium done astir that."

Novo Nordisk now makes Ozempic and Wegovy, medicine narcotics utilized to dainty Type 2 glucosuria and obesity, which person go wildly popular.

From glucosuria to laundry detergent to weight loss 

While Krogsgaard  convinced institution activity to study obesity drugs, it was Lotte Knudsen who made breakthroughs successful nan research. Her first occupation astatine Novo Nordisk was connected nan enzyme squad researching ways of making judge reds and whites didn't tally successful nan wash. She views her investigation connected detergent and obesity nan aforesaid way. 

Lotte Knudsen 60 Minutes

"It's nan aforesaid story, right, of conscionable wanting to make a merchandise that's useful," Knudsen said.

In nan early 90s, she came crossed a study astir GLP-1, a people occurring gut hormone that lowered humor sweetener levels and suppressed appetite. Knudsen thought that if GLP-1 could beryllium harnessed into a drug, it could revolutionize curen for some glucosuria and obesity. She took nan study to her boss, caput of investigation Mads Krogsgaard.

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"She was nan first 1 to march into my office, pinch reddish hair, and very fired up, showing maine a publication that was not moreover published yet," Krogsgaard said. "She was talking very agitatedly astir this. And I was getting excited."

Novo Nordisk spent nan adjacent 20 years moving connected that GLP-1 molecule earlier Ozempic yet made it to marketplace arsenic a Type 2 glucosuria supplier successful 2017. It took different 4 years for Wegovy to beryllium approved for weight loss. 

Mads Krogsgaard 60 Minutes

The narcotics turned Novo Nordisk from a niche subordinate into a institution bigger than Exxon Mobil and Procter & Gamble. With a marketplace headdress of $600 billion, Novo Nordisk is now Europe's largest company. 

Despite nan meteoric occurrence of nan narcotics she helped develop, Knudsen still considers herself a "nerdy small intelligence who benignant of recovered location present successful this institution for 35 years."

In:
• Wegovy
• Ozempic
• Denmark