Novo Nordisk’s New Board: A Shift Back to Science & Operations But a Step Away From Commercial Priorities?

Listening to Novo Nordisk’s Extraordinary General Meeting today (Nov 14, 2025) made one thing clear: the Novo Nordisk Foundation has fully reasserted control. Five new board members were elected, replacing much of the prior leadership team after months of tension over speed, scope, and the company’s readiness to operate as a global consumer-facing brand.

The new board is strong in science, operations, and governance. Lars Rebien Sørensen returns as Chair, bringing stability, institutional memory, and a strong relationship with the Foundation.

Cees de Jong and Britt Meelby Jensen add deep biologics, biotech, and medtech commercialization experience. Stephan Engels strengthens financial discipline. And Mikael Dolsten, the long-time Pfizer R&D leader, brings scientific credibility in metabolic disease, vaccines, and platform technologies.

But what’s equally important is what the new board does not include.

By removing Christina Law (P&G, J&J), Novo Nordisk loses the only director with true consumer-marketing credentials, exactly when GLP-1s are shifting from traditional pharmaceuticals into global consumer brands. Wegovy, Ozempic, and future cardiometabolic combinations now shape culture, identity, and lifestyle.

That requires U.S. consumer insights, retail fluency, digital engagement, and brand-building at scale.

This gap is more striking given that 57.6% of Novo Nordisk’s global sales come from the United States (FactSet), yet the new board has limited deep U.S. commercial operating experience. At a moment when U.S. payers, PBMs, retailers, employers, and consumer health platforms are redesigning the obesity market, U.S. commercial expertise is mission-critical.

There are early indications that the company may add a board member with strong U.S. commercial experience in the future, which would help rebalance the board toward the realities of its largest and most dynamic market. This is the strategic tension: Novo Nordisk is becoming a mass-consumer health brand, but the board is now more science-traditional and Europe-centric than ever.

Competitors, especially Eli Lilly, have aggressively hired from Nike, Amazon, Apple, and top U.S. consumer health organizations to build next-generation obesity engagement models. The Foundation’s move signals a belief that Novo should prioritize scientific leadership, industrial scale-up, and long-term stewardship rather than “moving too fast” into consumer branding.

The scientific and operational bench just got much deeper. The consumer and U.S. commercial bench remains thin, at least for now.

The next 24 months will reveal whether Novo can maintain category leadership without stronger U.S. commercial and consumer-market expertise at board level, or whether this creates an opening for more consumer-savvy competitors.

About the Author

Thani Jambulingam, PhD, is a professor of food, pharma, and healthcare business at Saint Joseph’s University’s Erivan K. Haub School of Business.