Novo Nordisk to lay off 400 staff in R&D and refocus pipeline

Despite just a week ago opening a major R&D facility in the UK, today Danish diabetes care giant Novo Nordisk (NOV: N) announced plans to restructure its R&D organization to accelerate the expansion and diversification of its pipeline across serious chronic diseases, but also reducing staffing.

To enable increased investment in transformational biological and technological innovation within both core and new therapy areas, around 400 employees will be laid off from R&D roles in Denmark and China. Market reaction was mooted, with Novo Nordisk’s shares down just 0.61% at 301.35 Danish kroner by close of trading today.

To support its strategic ambitions, Novo Nordisk will establish four Transformational Research Units in 2018 to pursue novel treatment modalities and platform technologies. The biotech-like units, based in Denmark, the USA and the UK, will operate as satellites of Novo Nordisk's central R&D function and will drive innovation in priority fields such as translational cardio-metabolic research and stem cell research.