'Still a bull': Novo's CEO on honoring heritage and planning for the future amid corporate rebrand

Pharma 'Still a bull': Novo's CEO on honoring heritage and planning for the future amid corporate rebrand By Fraiser Kansteiner Sep 17, 2026 8:45am Novo Nordisk Maziar Mike Doustdar pharma CEO Ozempic (semaglutide) Novo CEO Mike Doustdar—tapped to breathe new life into the Danish drugmaker last year after losing GLP-1 marketing ground to chief rival Eli Lilly—isn’t one to make changes for the sake of change. Nevertheless, the chief executive was acutely aware of the evolving perception of his company, both from within and without, in the build-up to its rebrand earlier this week. The refresh spans many facets of Novo’s corporate identity, from the guiding principles of its business and purpose statement to the firm’s logo and name.

Under the initiative, guided by the idea that “Lasting Health Starts Now,” the company’s everyday branding has been simplified to just “Novo,” while Novo Nordisk A/S remains its legal global moniker. Meanwhile, Novo’s mythologically-rich Apis bull logo—a hallmark of the company for decades—now faces right rather than left in a nod to the future. The decision to maintain and refresh the distinctive Apis bull logo signals that “it is good to be proud of your heritage, to still be a bull, but it’s also good—while you keep the integrity of who you are—to be open to changing directions from time to time,” Doustdar said in an interview with Fierce.

But that desire to evolve did not come out of thin air. “Internally and externally, there is a recognition that Novo Nordisk needs to rethink and revise some parts of its strategy,” Doustdar said of how he’s framed the decision to colleagues. “Some parts are actually still very intact,” he said of Novo’s existing business.

“Diabetes, obesity are very core to what we do, and we need to strengthen and continue that leadership.” That said, “there is more to that than we thought,” the Novo CEO admitted. Related ‘It’s been a roller coaster’: Novo Nordisk’s CFO reflects on ‘pressure’ to drive growth Although Novo served as a trailblazer in unlocking the GLP-1 market, primarily through the prolific popularity of its type 2 diabetes medicine Ozempic and its sister semaglutide drug for obesity, Wegovy, the company has faced persistent challenges—particularly in the U.S. market—from Lilly, which itself markets direct incretin rivals in Mounjaro and Zepbound.

More recently, the companies have embarked on a new competitive frontier via the launch of oral GLP-1 options for obesity, where Novo has been able to make the most of the head-start launch of its Wegovy pill in 2026. Against this backdrop, consumer behaviors have shifted rapidly as well, as people take more control over their health, aided by a groundswell of telehealth and virtual pharmacy services in recent years. “We make changes not for the sake of change,” Doustdar said.

“We make changes as a response to the environment we are in, and our environment has been radically changed over the last three, four years, I would say, and we felt strongly that we needed to make some radical changes to adjust ourselves to it.” “But I also tell my colleagues,” Doustdar added, “that if we can find a good way to embrace change as humans, it would be very good because one thing is for sure: change will be the only constant in our future.” In terms of where Novo needs to adapt, Doustdar pointed to the company’s last purpose statement: We are here to drive change to defeat serious chronic diseases. “Increasingly, the people we serve tell you that we cannot see ourselves in that statement,” he explained. He noted that many of Novo’s customers don’t consider themselves patients or people with a chronic disease, pointing specifically to those utilizing the company’s medicines for weight loss.

“That disconnect makes you go back and think: How can I realign myself again to those I’m serving,” he added. “But when I think about ‘Lasting Health Starts Now,’ Doustdar said, “it also fits incredibly well to where we come from as a company and our diabetes heritage.” “Diabetes is a progressive and chronic disease,” he explained. “We encourage and ask people to go on our medications, not least insulin, in order to avoid health complications in the future.

In a very interesting way, we’ve been telling them for 100 years: Lasting health starts now.” On the other side of the coin, “instead of getting into a judgment call of what to call our customers or those we serve—patients or consumers—let’s talk about health,” Doustdar said. “Because at the end of it, for all of us, that’s most important.” Meanwhile, the new tagline “also opens up the room for us to explore more,” he added, pointing to “where the future will take us scientifically.” In particular, Doustdar suggested that this broader focus on lasting health would prevent Novo from having to rework its mission statement in the future should it wade into other fields of disease. Walking the walk Beyond the company’s refreshed mantra, subtle changes to Novo’s corporate culture are expected to advance the company’s mission moving forward.

“Strategy turns into execution by the right behaviors of those who are driving it,” Doustdar said, “and it would be borderline incomplete when you change the strategy and do not change the culture.” The four principles that will serve as Novo’s lodestar going forward—which it has dubbed “The Novo Way”—are customer obsession, competitiveness, clarity and, lastly, care and integrity. To the first point, Doustdar suggested that Novo must consider the patient in “everything that we do, from the onset of research to the delivery of the product to them.” As for the competitiveness piece, “it is really about not judging ourselves by what good looks like compared to yesterday,” Doustdar said, “but how fast others in the same field are running, and how can we be competitive vis-à-vis them?” Clarity, meanwhile, primarily boils down to clear-eyed leadership, per the CEO, who warned that amid pressure to move quickly, “the fastest of all employees slows down and stands still when the leader is not very clear which direction they should be running towards.” “And last but not least,” Doustdar said, “having been here for 34 years, the care, the integrity of this company being second to none is so dear not just to me, but to all of our employees and to all of our customers, frankly speaking.” To that point, the CEO stressed that “it is possible to be competitive; it is possible to be assertive; it is possible to be fast, but still with care, still with integrity.” In reflecting on Novo’s history and his time at the company, Doustdar opined that he was just 21 years old when he started with the drugmaker, noting that, at the time, “the company was very nervous because we had serious quality mishaps and problems with the FDA, and we were very close to possibly being closed out.” “The only ones that really believed in the company were us, the internal employees of the company,” he said. But rather than accept defeat, the Novo team at the time set out to “show the rest that our best days are ahead of us.” Ultimately, that grit and determination helped Novo build what Doustdar described as “a quality system second to none, which we still today are incredibly proud of.” Looking back, Doustdar said that even when others see a mishap or hiccup and assume that Novo’s better days are behind them, “us as employees, we feel very different.” So far, internal reception to the changes has been positive, too, Doustdar noted.

“I think they are quite happy to see the bull still alive,” Doustdar said of Novo’s workforce, “and when we tell them about the directional change, there is an ‘aha’ moment.” Meanwhile, the “simplicity and the pointiness” of Novo’s new quartet of guiding principles is going over well, too, he said. Related ‘I’m a lot more optimistic today’: Mike Doustdar tells Fierce about pivotal first year as Novo Nordisk CEO Returning to Novo’s logo, Doustdar admitted that, “If anything, I joke around saying that if an Egyptian Apis bull of 3,000-year-old heritage can keep itself as a bull still, but go to the right, so can we also as humans.” As for whether removing the bull from the logo was ever in question, Doustdar did not hesitate to explain, “absolutely not.” Novo Nordisk Maziar Mike Doustdar pharma CEO Ozempic (semaglutide) Wegovy GLP-1 Diabetes Marketing Pharma Week Content Hub Pharma