The United States is enthusiastic about weight loss drugs, reshaping the Danish economy.

In recent years, Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk has made significant breakthroughs in the field of weight loss drugs, generating billions of dollars in revenue and increasing its market value by more than one-third. According to market analysis, Novo Nordisk's outstanding performance has led to a decrease in interest rates in Denmark.

Currently, Novo Nordisk's market value has reached approximately $420 billion, surpassing Denmark's GDP of about $406 billion. This means that Novo Nordisk's influence on Denmark has exceeded that of well-known Danish companies such as Lego and Carlsberg.

Novo Nordisk's skyrocketing growth has had a significant impact on the Danish economy, particularly in terms of foreign exchange management. Denmark's currency, the krone, is pegged to the euro, and the euro's interest rate adjustments and other intervention measures are taken to maintain the stability of the Danish krone against the euro.

Jens Naervig Pedersen, a director at Danske Bank, stated that the sales of Novo Nordisk's weight loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy have been very strong, to the extent that a large amount of US dollars had to be exchanged for Danish kroner, thereby increasing the value of the Danish krone relative to the euro:

"Due to the rapid growth of the pharmaceutical industry, a large amount of currency has flowed into Danish economic activities."

Economists believe that Novo Nordisk's overall success in the field of weight loss and diabetes drugs is beneficial to the Danish economy. With the company's domestic investment growth creating more job opportunities, the Danish economy will benefit. They also state that lower interest rates are advantageous for homebuyers, as they can obtain slightly lower mortgage loan rates compared to other regions in Europe.

However, allowing a domestic company to play such a disproportionate role in the economy poses risks for a small country. For many years, the economy of another Nordic country, Finland, has been dominated by the telecommunications company Nokia, which accounted for 4% of Finland's GDP, over one-fifth of its exports, and approximately 70% of the total market value of all listed companies during its peak in 2000. From 1995 to 2007, it played a significant role in Finland's economic growth, with cumulative GDP growth of 55%, nearly twice that of the United States.

Nokia's decline coincided with a decade of economic stagnation in Finland since 2008. The collapse of Nokia's mobile phone market, coupled with the impact of austerity policies and the eurozone crisis, plunged Finland's economy into trouble, leading to a decline in per capita income over the next decade.

Novo Nordisk is currently the second most valuable listed company in Europe, second only to luxury brand LVMH.

Analysts predict that Novo Nordisk's weight loss drug sales will reach $6.1 billion this year and nearly $15 billion by 2027.

Novo Nordisk's Q2 report shows that, in Danish kroner, its revenue in H1 2023 increased by 29% YoY to DKK 107.7 billion, operating profit increased by 30% YoY to DKK 48.9 billion, and net profit reached DKK 39.2 billion, a staggering 43% YoY increase, with a net profit margin of 36.4%, a 3.4% increase compared to the same period last year. According to business segmentation, the sales of Novo Nordisk's Diabetes and Obesity Care business increased by 36%, reaching DKK 99 billion, accounting for 92% of its revenue. The company stated that the growth of the Diabetes and Obesity Care business was mainly due to a 49% increase in sales of GLP-1 drugs and a 158% YoY increase in sales of Obesity Care business.