WEST LEBANON — Novo Nordisk, a Denmark-based biotech company that has locations throughout the United States, including West Lebanon, announced Wednesday that it would layoff about 9,000 workers.
The announcement attributed the layoffs, in part, to “competing in a more dynamic and consumer-driven obesity market, as evidenced by the recent slowdown in growth.”
Novo Nordisk was an early developer of the weight loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy, but other companies have since developed similar drugs.
The layoffs will eliminate about 9,000 of the company’s 78,400 jobs. More than half of those layoffs are expected to be employees based in Denmark.
It is unclear how the layoffs will affect West Lebanon.
“This is a global transformation, and each country, site or region will be impacted differently,” a Novo Nordisk spokesperson wrote in an email. “We will not be able to share specific numbers or additional facts about our site in West Lebanon until plans are finalised and the appropriate consultations have been carried out in line with local labour laws.”
Employers must notify the state if they are going to layoff at least 25 people, John Garrigan, general counsel for the New Hampshire Department of Labor, said.
“We have not received anything from Novo Nordisk, but state laws don’t necessarily require companies to notify us,” Garrigan said in a Thursday phone interview.
The law only applies to employers that have at least 100 employees in the state. Companies must give the state at least 60 days advance notice of the layoffs if they meet the requirements.
The company declined to provide the number of employees it has in West Lebanon.
“I’m afraid we don’t disclose the number of employees at individual sites,” a spokesperson wrote in a Thursday email. West Lebanon is the company’s only location in the Twin States.
The company had around 400 employees in West Lebanon in August 2024, according to NH Business Review article. At the time, it was looking to hire 40 more employees at the site.
Novo Nordisk opened its 215,000-square-foot plant on 16 acres in West Lebanon in 2014, according to a 2024 fact sheet the company put together. In 2018 and 2019, it manufactured two drugs used to treat patients with hemophilia A, an inherited bleeding disorder, and in 2020, the plant manufactured a drug that gained FDA approval for treating patients with growth hormone deficiency.
As of Thursday, Novo Nordisk still had job openings in West Lebanon listed on its website, including one for a manufacturing technician and another for an active pharmaceutical ingredient, or API, planning associate.
The company also had open positions at its other U.S. locations including Bloomington, Ind., and Durham, N.C.
Novo Nordisk gained the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval for Ozempic, a drug used to treat diabetes, in 2017, according to a news release from the company. It also has been used to treat patients with obesity.
Novo Nordisk also developed Wegovy, which received FDA approval in 2017 and can be used “to reduce the risk of cardiovascular death, heart attack and stroke in adults with cardiovascular disease and either obesity or overweight,” according to a March 2024 FDA news release.
In the years since, similar drugs — including Eli Lily’s Mounjaro and Zepbound — have entered the market.
“As the global leader in obesity and diabetes, Novo Nordisk delivers life-changing products for patients worldwide,” Mike Doustdar, Novo Nordisk’s president and CEO, said in the release. “But our markets are evolving, particularly in obesity, as it has become more competitive and consumer-driven.”