Novo Nordisk CEO Mike Doustdar, Digi Mart USA News (Bagsværd, Denmark): Mike Doustdar was experiencing chest pain while stationed in Malaysia with his family for the pharmaceutical company, and the doctor at the hospital feared a heart attack. The episode happened about 15 years ago, when he knew his lifestyle was unhealthy and that he weighed too much.
Today Doustdar is chief executive of Novo, Denmark’s largest and most important company. In an exclusive interview with DR’s business podcast Sorte Tal, he said that while on the way to further hospital examinations, he prayed to be allowed to live to see his young children grow up, promising to change his life and take better care of himself.
Further tests showed it was not a heart attack but a combination of a heart spasm and an infection of the heart, which was treated without lasting consequences. Doustdar nonetheless kept his promise, investing in a fitness tracker, an advanced electronic bathroom scale and a treadmill for home use.
“I ran every single day and tried to eat less, and then I lost weight,” Doustdar said. He described himself as slim and fit during the interview, which took place at Novo’s headquarters in Bagsværd near Copenhagen.
The interview comes as Novo works to recover from a crisis marked by declining sales and a plunging share price. Since Doustdar became chief executive in August of last year, 10,000 employees have been laid off and several divisions have been sold.
He has said the company will focus aggressively on the weight-loss medicine market and replaced its former commitment to having the “patient at the center” with a pledge to be “obsessed with the customer.”
Doustdar said he had lost weight the traditional way, through less food and more exercise, before the breakthrough of the weight-loss medicines that have brought billions in revenue to Novo, first Saxenda and then the blockbuster drugs Ozempic and Wegovy. He has also taken Wegovy himself, but said weight has a tendency to creep back, describing it as a cycle that is also true for many of the company’s customers.
When interviewed, he said he was not currently taking Wegovy and tracks his steps with an Oura ring, adding that he still weighs the same at home.
Weight-loss medicines have drawn critics who call them an unnatural way to lose weight, a substitute for lasting lifestyle change, and a source of costly dependence because many people regain lost weight once they stop taking them. Doustdar acknowledged that lifestyle change is generally a better way to lose weight, saying that although Novo is a pharmaceutical company, it encourages everyone to start with lifestyle improvements.
He argued that medicines are on the market because first-line solutions have not worked for many people, and that the world has roughly two billion people living with overweight or obesity who have different needs.
Asked whether he sees himself as a patient or a customer, Doustdar said he would describe himself as a customer, noting that he also takes statins to control his cholesterol. He said people may describe themselves as they wish, and that Novo serves both consumers and patients, which he considers a better way to explain how the company serves society.
