Novo Nordisk's founding date

Novo Nordisk, the Danish company behind Ozempic, Wegovy, and other GLP-1 medicines, lists its founding date as December 21, 1923 ^[1]. That date sits at the start of a chain of events that began when physiologist August Krogh and his wife Marie learned about the discovery of insulin while on a US lecture tour that year and changed their plans to meet with the Canadian scientists who had discovered it, including Frederick Banting, John Macleod, Charles Best, and James Collip ^[1].

After securing permission to produce insulin in Denmark, Krogh worked with Hans Christian Hagedorn, using funding and facilities from August Kongsted, to extract and purify insulin from fish and rabbit pancreases ^[1]. This effort, called the Insulin Laboratory, initially operated as a unit of Kongsted's existing pharmaceutical company, Løvens Kemiske Fabrik ^[1]. Kongsted rented a factory in Emdrup, Denmark, in late 1923 to keep up with demand for insulin ^[1].

According to the source, the Insulin Laboratory and that factory were not formally spun off into their own company, Nordisk Insulin Laboratorium, until July 1924 ^[1]. That means the December 1923 date that Novo Nordisk uses as its founding anniversary predates the actual creation of the Nordisk entity by about seven months, based on the timeline described in the same source ^[1]. The source does not explain why the company settled on December 21, 1923, specifically, rather than the July 1924 date of the formal spinoff, or some other point in the sequence of events that year.

A separate but related company, Novo Terapeutisk Laboratorium, was formed in 1925 by brothers Harald and Thorvald Pedersen, former Nordisk employees ^[1]. Novo and Nordisk operated as competitors for more than six decades before merging in 1989 to form Novo Nordisk A/S, the entity that exists today ^[1].

Why it matters for patients

For patients using Ozempic, Wegovy, or other Novo Nordisk products, this is a piece of company history rather than something that affects how the drugs work or are regulated. It does not change dosing, safety information, insurance coverage, or availability of any current medication.

Still, understanding a drugmaker's origins can offer context. Novo Nordisk's roots in early 20th-century insulin production show that the company's core business, treating metabolic conditions like diabetes, predates its more recent expansion into obesity medicines by about a century ^[1]. The company today manufactures and markets products in 168 countries and employs more than 48,000 people, according to the source, with net sales in 2024 reported at $42.121 billion ^[1].

Patients who want to understand who makes their medication, and how long that company has operated in this space, may find the anniversary date relevant as background. It does not, however, provide information about efficacy, side effects, or cost, which are governed by clinical trial data, FDA labeling, and insurance formularies rather than corporate history.

What happens next

The source does not describe any specific upcoming events tied to the founding anniversary, such as public commemorations or corporate announcements. It also does not clarify the discrepancy between the December 1923 date used for the company's official founding and the July 1924 date given elsewhere in the same source for when Nordisk Insulin Laboratorium was formally created as a separate company ^[1]. That detail is not further addressed in the material available.