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Market movers: Danish firm soars past global giants 

Novo Nordisk surpasses the 2.5 trillion kroner mark … which puts it in the top 20 in the world and on a par with the GDP of Denmark

Late last year it emerged that Novo Nordisk was among the most desirable firms for professionals to work in Denmark.

Perhaps one of the reasons for this is down to the Danish pharma company becoming a behemoth on the international scene. 

In fact, measured by market capitalisation, it has grown to such an extent that it’s now bigger than global giants like Coca Cola, McDonald’s, Toyota and Nike.

With an estimated market cap of over 2.5 trillion kroner – good enough for 19th in the world – the company is even measuring up to Denmark’s GDP of 2.8 trillion kroner.

No other Danish company even comes close to Novo Nordisk – shipping powerhouse Maersk is valued at one tenth of that.

“Novo Nordisk has entered the big leagues and is actually now the second most valuable pharmaceutical company in the world,” Søren Løntoft Hansen, a senior analyst with Sydbank, told TV2 News.

READ ALSO: Lego and Novo Nordisk rated among top employers by professionals

Solid start to 2023
In recent months, Novo Nordisk has been buoyed by the formidable sales of its new weight loss medication, Wegovy. 

And the company’s diabetes products have also brought in a significant chunk of change this year.

The first quarter of the year has only just passed, but the firm has already increased its revenue and operating profit expectations for 2023 from 13-19 percent growth to 24-30 percent.

According to companiesmarketcap.com, Apple has the biggest market cap in the world, followed by Microsoft, Saudi Aramco, Alphabet (Google) and Amazon. While the world’s biggest pharma company, Johnson & Johnson, is at number 10.

Novo Nordisk is the only Nordic company in the top 100, while 15 of the 20 top companies hail from the US.

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