(Bloomberg) -- Novo Nordisk A/S is prepared for potential tariffs from US President Donald Trump, the Danish drugmaker’s chief executive said, as tensions simmer between Copenhagen and Washington.
Trump has threatened tariffs on key trading partners Canada, Mexico and China, which has left some manufacturing companies scrambling to react. The US is a key market for Novo’s top products, including Ozempic for diabetes and the Wegovy weight-loss therapy.
Novo has more than 10,000 employees in the US and a large part of its supply chain there that would be sufficient for the country’s needs “to a large degree,” CEO Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen said Wednesday in a Bloomberg TV interview. “The base case is that this is something we can handle.”
Trump is threatening tariffs as he clashes with Denmark over Greenland, a self-ruling territory of the Nordic country that he covets for security reasons. Novo’s shares rose as much as 6.3% today in Copenhagen after it predicted a 2025 sales surge surpassing analysts’ expectations.
Novo already has a network of factories around the world, giving it “a hedge against a world with more tariffs,” Jorgensen said in a separate interview. “There’s quite a long way from a top-line statement to actually real implementation.”
Novo’s “investments in the US align well with the government’s wishes,” the CEO said later at a press conference at the company’s headquarters outside Copenhagen.
Jorgensen was among Danish business leaders to meet last month with the country’s prime minister and other cabinet ministers to discuss the discord with the US.
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