People on the Move
Novo Nordisk
Novo Nordisk is reported to be searching for “the most eminent people” in obesity for R&D on a line of fat-fighting therapies.
Chief Science Officer Mads Krogsgaard Thomsen told Bloomberg the company may headquarter its obesity research in Seattle.
Of the 400 jobs axed when Novo Nordisk culled its anti-inflammatory pipeline earlier this month, 63 were in Seattle, but the company retained its 50-strong diabetes centre and continues to lease R&D space in the South Lake Union area.
Thomsen said the Danish company will collaborate with universities and biotechs, and then develop obesity therapies in-house.
“We are taking a whole portfolio approach, pretty much like Novo Nordisk has done in diabetes, with different solutions for different people,” he said, at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes conference in Vienna.
The US Food and Drug Administration granted Novo Nordisk approval on September 11 for obesity treatment Saxenda (liraglutide), a daily human GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide 1) analogue.
(Pictured: Novo Nordisk’s Seattle R&D centre for diabetes and, formerly, for inflammation research.)
