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news.Danish pharmaceutical firm Novo Nordisk has unveiled plans to lay off 400 jobs as part of its efforts to transform its approach on research & development (R&D).
Image: Novo Nordisk headquarters in Bagsværd, Denmark. Photo: courtesy of Jens Lindhe.
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The company is restructuring its R&D organization to accelerate the expansion and diversification of its pipeline across severe chronic diseases, in addition to supporting increased investment in transformational biological and technological innovation within both core and new therapy areas.
As part of its strategy, the company will create four transformational research units in this year to support development of novel treatment modalities and platform technologies.
Based in Denmark, the US and the UK, the biotech-like units will serve as satellites for Novo Nordisk’s central R&D function and will help focus on priority fields such as translational cardio-metabolic research and stem cell research.
The company will also increase its investment in automation and digital capabilities such as machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance its efficiency in molecule selection and development.
Novo Nordisk will also prioritize the integration of laboratory infrastructure and IT systems to enhance the capability of the R&D organization.
The restructuring and re-allocation of resources will help Novo Nordisk’s to change the way of working within R&D, enabling to identify and develop innovative drug candidates.
The move will facilitate the identification and apply of new therapeutic approaches based on external collaboration. Novo Nordisk will establish new business development unit in Cambridge of Massachusetts.
Novo Nordisk acquired UK-based biotech start-up Ziylo to expand research within glucose-responsive insulins, as well as established multiple partnership agreements with universities and biotech in the fields of cardio-metabolic and stem cell research.
Novo Nordisk chief science officer Mads Krogsgaard Thomsen said: “Delivering on our ambition of achieving even higher levels of innovation across a broader and more diverse range of chronic diseases requires that we have the optimal future skill base and allocate resources to our priority areas.
“Unfortunately, this implies that a number of valued colleagues will lose their jobs in order to ensure that we have sufficient new research capabilities needed to support our long-term growth ambitions.”
