\n<\/p>\n
Denmark\u2019s world-leading success in commercializing research should not be written off as a one-off confined to the country\u2019s booming weight loss drug industry, a Nobel-winning scientist has argued.<\/p>\n
Since Novo Nordisk\u2019s diabetes treatment Ozempic was sold as weight-loss drug Wegovy, the Danish biotech company has quickly grown into one of the world\u2019s biggest companies and Denmark\u2019s largest single corporate taxpayer, contributing almost $4\u00a0billion in corporate taxes in the year ending March 2025\u2014about half of the country\u2019s total corporate take.<\/p>\n
A further $3.8\u00a0billion in income taxes\u2014which can reach up to 56\u00a0percent for higher earners\u2014was also collected from Novo Nordisk staff in 2024.<\/p>\n
That success has led to major interest in how Denmark\u2019s model of combined strong fundamental and applied research paid off so spectacularly and whether it can be replicated, although some pundits have wondered whether the serendipitous discovery of Ozempic\u2014whose roots lie in research on snake venom\u2014represents a one-shot for its industrial science sector.<\/p>\n
Speaking to Times Higher Education<\/em>, however, the Nobel laureate Morten Meldal, who is professor of chemistry at the University of Copenhagen, said Novo Nordisk\u2019s story should not be seen as an outlier in Danish research but one of many prosperous science-based companies based in the country of just six\u00a0million people.<\/p>\n \u201cNovo Nordisk is the result of Denmark\u2019s system\u2014its success is directly attributable to how our society operates: We have high taxes, but those taxes result in huge tax-exempt industrial foundations funding science and creating opportunities for both academic and industrial success. That is why Novo Nordisk happened in Denmark,\u201d said Meldal, who won the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 2022.<\/p>\n While Novo Nordisk\u2014whose $570\u00a0billion valuation last year was famously larger than Denmark\u2019s entire GDP\u2014has captured the interest of research policymakers, it should be understood in a wider context of sustained investment in research from industry, he added.<\/p>\n \u201cLook at Novozymes, Maersk, Carlsberg\u2014if you consider how much our companies invest in research, it is far more than the government. Novo Nordisk has the blockbuster product now, but it arrived within the context of our system\u2014there are lots of companies doing well by commercializing research.\u201d<\/p>\n Noting the advances made by U.S.-based Eli Lilly, which has two medications\u2014Mounjaro and Zepbound\u2014approved for use by American regulators, Meldal predicted that Novo Nordisk\u2019s undisputed advantage in this area will eventually be eroded. But Denmark\u2019s system will produce other big science success stories, said the biochemist, who leads the synthesis group in the chemistry department at the Carlsberg Laboratory.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have won so much with Novo Nordisk, but its scientific success is the rule, not the exception,\u201d he said, underlining the importance of basic research to create the opportunities of tomorrow.<\/p>\n Denmark\u2019s success in research has an even simpler root, continued Meldal, who was speaking at the annual Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting held in southern Germany last month.<\/p>\n \u201cThe best investment that any country can make is education; the payback on this is huge, and that allows for other investments, such as science. To do this you need our high-tax system and a government dedicated to long-term success of the entire society,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cMy advice to any country who wants Denmark\u2019s system of science is simple: Pay your taxes with joy and ask for return on investment for the community.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Denmark\u2019s world-leading success in commercializing research should not be written off as a one-off confined to the country\u2019s booming weight loss drug industry, a Nobel-winning scientist has argued. Since Novo Nordisk\u2019s diabetes treatment Ozempic was sold as weight-loss drug Wegovy, the Danish biotech company has quickly grown into one of the world\u2019s biggest companies and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16105,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[1040,1823,9537,516,9538,6552],"class_list":{"0":"post-16104","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-pay","9":"tag-pride","10":"tag-recipe","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-superpower","13":"tag-taxes"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}