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Everything about Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen is understated. The chief executive of Danish drugs group Novo Nordisk grew up on a pig farm in Jutland and from an early age was expected to muck out the animals.
關於周賦德(Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen)的一切都很低調。這位丹麥製藥集團諾和諾德(Novo Nordisk)的首席執行長在日德蘭半島(Jutland)的一個養豬場長大,小時候還要給牲畜清理糞便。
While most of his rivals take private jets to their appointments, he waits for commercial connections. Tall, thin and thoughtful, Jørgensen is far from the conventional image of a swashbuckling, dealmaking CEO: he started his career as an economist in the healthcare and planning department.
當他的大多數競爭對手乘坐著私人飛機去赴約時,他卻在等待航班中轉。周賦德身材瘦高,心思縝密,與傳統印象中揮斥方遒、熱衷交易的首席執行長形象大相徑庭:他的職業生涯始於在醫療保健和規劃部門擔任經濟學家。
But in his low-key way, Jørgensen is pioneering a commercial innovation that could have a profound impact not just on healthcare, but on societies, on public finances and on our relationship with food.
但周賦德正在以他低調的方式開創一項商業創新,這項創新不僅會對醫療保健,還會對社會、公共財政以及我們與食物的關係產生深遠影響。
Novo Nordisk is the company behind the first game-changing treatments that are used for obesity: Wegovy and Ozempic. Before these drugs, the only truly effective treatment was bariatric surgery, which is expensive and sometimes risky. Now there is a simple injection.
諾和諾德是推出第一批顛覆性肥胖症治療藥物,Wegovy和Ozempic背後的公司。在這些藥物出現之前,唯一真正有效的治療方法是減肥手術,這種手術不僅費用昂貴,有時還存在風險。現在只要注射即可。
A safe and readily available treatment for obesity could have a huge impact on human health, while also generating savings on treating other diseases. Obesity will affect an estimated 1bn people by 2030 — with all the associated impact that has on rates of diabetes, heart disease and mobility. In the US alone, the economy loses up to $30bn a year in sick days due to the condition, according to research from Cornell.
一種安全且容易獲得的肥胖治療方法可能對人類健康產生巨大影響,同時還可以節省治療其他疾病的費用。據估計到2030年,肥胖症將影響約10億人,並對糖尿病、心臟病和行動不便的發病率產生相關影響。康乃爾大學(Cornell)的研究顯示,僅在美國,每年因肥胖症請病假造成的經濟損失就高達300億美元。
And it is not just obesity: there is now good evidence to suggest the company’s drugs could also help prevent heart attacks and there is even some hope they could be used to treat Alzheimer’s by reducing inflammation in the brain.
而且不僅僅是肥胖症:現在有充分證據表明,該公司的藥物還可以幫助預防心臟病發作,甚至有希望透過減少大腦炎症來治療阿爾茨海默氏症。
The Novo Nordisk drugs have been several decades in the works and Wegovy was first approved in the US in 2021. But this is the year that the momentum behind them has become unstoppable, when it became clear that they are more than just a celebrity fad.
諾和諾德的這些藥物歷經數十年研發,Wegovy於2021年首次在美國獲得批准。但就在今年,這些藥物的發展勢頭變得勢不可擋,顯然,它們已不僅僅是一種名人時尚。
Barclays forecasts sales of Wegovy, which is used for obesity, to hit $4.2bn this year and $7.3bn next, with Ozempic, designed for diabetes but often prescribed off-label for obesity, predicted to hit $13.3bn in 2023 and $16.5bn in 2024.
巴克萊(Barclays)預測,用於治療肥胖症的Wegovy今年銷售額將達到42億美元,明年將達到73億美元,而Ozempic——用於治療糖尿病,但經常超說明書開處方用於治療肥胖症——預計將在2023年達到133億美元,2024年達到165億美元。
The success has turbocharged Novo Nordisk: with little fanfare, it has become the most valuable company in Europe, overtaking luxury group LVMH, maker of Louis Vuitton and Moët & Chandon.
這一成功爲諾和諾德注入了強勁動力:它悄無聲息地超越了奢侈品集團路易威登(Louis Vuitton)和酩悅香檳(Moët & Chandon)的製造商路威酩軒(LVMH),成爲歐洲最有價值的公司。
For his role conducting this model of patient, persistent but transformational innovation, the Financial Times has chosen Jørgensen as its Person of the Year.
英國《金融時報》將周賦德選爲年度人物,以表彰他在引領這一持之以恆、堅持不懈,具有變革意義的創新範本中所發揮的作用。
Jørgensen, who drives himself to work in an electric car and goes kayaking on the lake near his house to reflect, would never be as brash as to claim his product can be a panacea for society’s ills — in the style of some Silicon Valley executives. But in his typically earnest way, he insists that the company and the industry can have a “huge chance of impacting the world”.
周賦德自己開著電動汽車上班,會在他家附近的湖上劃皮艇去沉思。他絕不會像一些矽谷高階主管那樣,輕率地宣稱自己的產品是解決社會弊病的靈丹妙藥。但他以自己一貫的認真態度堅持認爲,公司和行業有「巨大的機會影響世界」。
“I feel a great sense of responsibility for actually succeeding together with society,” he tells the FT, “because I think as an industry and as a company, we have part of the key to solving some of the huge societal problems, ageing populations, chronic diseases.”
他對英國《金融時報》表示:「我有一種強烈的責任感,要真正與社會一起取得成功,因爲我認爲,作爲一個行業和一家公司,我們掌握著一部分關鍵力量,去解決一些重大社會問題,比如人口老齡化、慢性病等等。」
Novo Nordisk also faces a number of potential obstacles that could still hamper its expected growth. The surge of popularity in the drugs — fuelled in part by slimming celebrities — has caused a supply shortage and created a booming black market. Concerns rumble about side effects. Rival Eli Lilly has won approval for its own obesity drug, which could be more effective and currently has a lower list price.
諾和諾德還面臨著一些潛在障礙,這些障礙仍有可能阻礙其預期成長。在名人瘦身的部分帶動下,這些藥物變得炙手可熱,導致了供應短缺,並催生了一個蓬勃發展的黑市。對副作用的擔憂不絕於耳。競爭對手禮來公司(Eli Lilly)已獲批生產自己的肥胖症藥物,這種藥物可能更有效,目前的標價也更低。
Most of all, Jørgensen still needs to convince many governments and cash-strapped health systems that it makes sense to pay for the drug now in order to save money later. And that in part requires a shift in mindset so that obesity is considered a disease that can be treated with medicine — like, say, high blood pressure — and not as a personal failing.
最重要的是,周賦德還需要說服許多國家的政府和資金短缺的醫療系統,讓他們相信,爲了節省日後開支,現在支付該藥的費用是合理的。這在一定程度上需要轉變觀念,將肥胖視爲一種可以透過藥物治療的疾病,就像高血壓一樣,而不是個人的失敗。
The company insists that for all the growing success, it is not getting ahead of itself. According to Kasim Kutay, chief executive of Novo Holdings, which controls the company, and who is a Novo Nordisk board member, Jørgensen reacted with a sense of “immense responsibility” when the company became the largest in Europe.
該公司堅持認爲,儘管取得了越來越多的成功,但它並沒有超越自我。諾和諾德公司董事會成員、諾和諾德控股公司(Novo Holdings)首席執行長卡西姆•庫塔伊(Kasim Kutay)認爲,當公司成爲歐洲最大的公司時,周賦德的反應是「責任重大」。
“It’s not something that is talked about or boasted about as . . . a feat in itself,” he says. “It’s about how do we use our scale and size to deliver on our responsibility to patients?”
他說:「這本身並不是什麼值得談論或誇耀的壯舉。這是關於我們如何利用我們的規模和體量來履行我們對患者的責任。」
Taking the long view
放眼長遠
The drugs began life at Novo Nordisk 32 years ago — by coincidence, when Jørgensen joined the company. Wegovy and Ozempic are both made from semaglutide, a version of an appetite-reducing hormone called GLP-1. But in the body, the hormone only lasts for minutes, so Novo’s scientists spent years making it stable enough to use as a medicine.
32年前,這些藥物在諾和諾德開始誕生,巧合的是,周賦德正是這時加入諾和諾德的。Wegovy和Ozempic都是由司美格魯肽(semaglutide)製成的,司美格魯肽是一種名爲「胰高血糖素樣肽-1」(GLP-1)的食慾降低激素。但這種激素在人體內只能維持幾分鐘,因此諾和諾德的科學家們花了數年時間使其足夠穩定,可以作爲藥物使用。
Jørgensen’s time at the company has coincided with a long-term bet on the potential of this new science. The first real breakthrough came 14 years ago, when the drugmaker got its first approval for a GLP-1 drug for diabetes in 2009. Another version followed in 2015, targeting weight loss. But it only helped patients lose about 5 per cent of their body weight. It would take six more years until Wegovy was approved, after a trial showed an average of 15 per cent weight loss.
周賦德在公司任職期間,公司長期看好這門新科學的潛力。第一次真正的突破出現在14年前,當時該製藥商在2009年首次獲得GLP-1治療糖尿病藥物的批准。2015年另一種針對減肥的藥物也獲批。但它只幫助患者減輕了約5%的體重。又過了6年,在一項試驗顯示體重平均減輕15%之後,Wegovy才獲得批准。
Not even Elon Musk in a wild night could take over or attempt to take over Novo Nordisk
Bent Dalager, an old friend of Jørgensen, describes how his childhood on the farm in Jutland made him a patient leader. “The thing about growing is throwing out these seeds, and they will become something later,” he says. “That’s actually a fairly good frame of mind to have if you work in the pharma industry.”
周賦德的老朋友本特•達拉格(Bent Dalager)講述了他在日德蘭半島農場的童年是如何使他成爲一個耐心的領導者的。他說:「種莊稼就是把這些種子撒出去,然後它們會長成作物的。如果你在製藥行業工作,這實際上是一種相當好的心態。」
Novo Nordisk could invest for the very long term partly because of its unusual ownership structure. Initially called Nordisk Insulinlaboratorium, the company was founded in 1923 by the Danish Nobel laureate August Krogh, pharmacist August Kongsted and scientist Hans Christian Hagedorn. The Canadian scientists who discovered insulin granted the pair permission to produce it in Scandinavia, with a caveat: the proceeds from its sale should be reinvested in research.
諾和諾德之所以能夠進行長期投資,部分原因在於其不同尋常的所有權結構。公司最初名爲諾和諾德胰島素實驗室(Nordisk Insulinlaboratorium),由丹麥諾貝爾獎獲得者奧古斯特•克羅(August Krogh)、藥劑師奧古斯特•孔斯特德(August Kongsted)和科學家漢斯•克里斯蒂安•哈格多恩(Hans Christian Hagedorn)於1923年創立。發現胰島素的加拿大科學家允許他們在斯堪的納維亞生產胰島素,但有一個條件:銷售所得應再投資於研究。
So they set up the Novo Nordisk Foundation, which thanks to the company’s growth is now the world’s largest philanthropic foundation by assets. Novo Holdings, which manages the foundation’s wealth, has 77 per cent of the voting rights of Novo Nordisk.
因此,他們成立了諾和諾德基金會(Novo Nordisk Foundation)。由於公司的發展,該基金會目前是全球資產規模最大的慈善基金會。管理該基金會財富的諾和控股控股公司擁有諾和諾德77%的投票權。
Martin Jes Iversen, an associate professor of strategy and innovation at Copenhagen Business School, says the structure kept the company committed to its broader purpose beyond profitability.
哥本哈根商學院(Copenhagen Business School)戰略與創新副教授馬丁•傑斯•艾弗森(Martin Jes Iversen)表示,這種結構使公司致力於實現盈利之外的更廣泛目標。
It also ensured Novo Nordisk was not for sale. “So not even Elon Musk in a wild night could take over or attempt to take over Novo Nordisk,” he says.
這也確保了諾和諾德不會被出售。「因此,即使是伊隆•馬斯克也不可能在一個瘋狂的夜晚突然收購或試圖收購諾和諾德,」他說。
Starting at the company in 1991, Jørgensen has worked in the US, Japan and the Netherlands, where he was one of few foreign executives to learn Dutch during his posting.
周賦德於1991年加入諾和諾德,曾在美國、日本和荷蘭工作過,是少數幾位在任職期間學習荷蘭語的外國高階主管之一。
Marcus Schindler, Novo Nordisk’s chief scientific officer, says Jørgensen is committed to Novo’s “ethical guardrails” and is “uncompromising” about serving patients, for example, insisting the company will never stop producing insulin, even though it is less profitable than other drugs.
諾和諾德首席科學官馬庫斯•辛德勒(Marcus Schindler)說,周賦德恪守諾和諾德的「道德準則」,在爲患者服務方面「毫不妥協」,例如,他堅持認爲公司永遠不會停止生產胰島素,即使這種藥物的利潤低於其他藥物。
Shortly after Jørgensen joined the company’s development committee but before he became chief executive, Novo needed to decide whether to invest more in trials for an earlier obesity drug. Jørgensen says it was a “big decision” because of the potential risks to Novo’s reputation. Most other pharmaceutical companies avoided weight-loss drugs because previous attempts had been dogged by dangerous side effects.
就在周賦德加入公司研發委員會後不久,但在他成爲首席執行長之前,諾和諾德需要決定是否加大對一種早期肥胖症藥物試驗的投資。周賦德說,這是一個「重大決定」,因爲這對諾和諾德的聲譽有潛在風險。其他大多數製藥公司都回避減肥藥,因爲之前的嘗試都受到了危險副作用的困擾。
“When you look at the field of obesity medicine, most of them were considered as either not very efficacious, or potentially also with an unattractive safety profile,” he recalls.
他回憶說:「縱觀肥胖藥物領域,大多數藥物都被認爲療效不佳,還可能安全性也不怎麼樣。」
This year, Jørgensen says his most important decisions have been about saying no. While the organisation is full of ideas of how to invest its windfall, Jørgensen is committed to doubling down on developing products for obesity, diabetes and cardiometabolic diseases.
周賦德說,今年他最重要的決定是說「不」。雖然該組織對如何投資這筆意外之財充滿了想法,但周賦德致力於加倍開發針對肥胖、糖尿病和心臟代謝疾病的產品。
“If there’s an unmet need, if it’s something that’s a core capability, I feel very, very comfortable in taking huge risks,” he explains.
他解釋說:「如果存在未滿足的需求,如果這是一項核心能力,我願意承擔巨大的風險。」
Cultural influence
文化影響
Unsurprisingly, Jørgensen is not on TikTok, where #Ozempic has clocked up 1.3bn mentions. He confesses the company was “late” to understanding the cultural impact of its drugs: it looked for feedback from the clinicians who the industry calls “key opinion leaders” rather than Hollywood influencers.
不出所料,周賦德不在TikTok上,而#Ozempic在TikTok上的提及次數已達13億次。他坦言,公司對其藥品的文化影響了解得「很晚」:公司尋求的是被業界稱爲「關鍵意見領袖」的臨牀醫生的反饋,而不是好萊塢的網紅。
When Kim Kardashian wore Marilyn Monroe’s dress to the Met Gala last year, she set off rumours about a diabetes drug helping celebrities slim down dramatically. Lauren Sherman, a fashion correspondent at digital media company Puck, remembers it looked like she had lost a lot of weight in the previous two weeks.
去年,當金•卡戴珊穿著瑪麗蓮•夢露的禮服出席Met Gala時,就引發了關於糖尿病藥物幫助名人大幅瘦身的傳言。數字媒體公司Puck的時尚記者勞倫•謝爾曼(Lauren Sherman)記得,卡戴珊在活動前的兩週裏瘦了非常多。
By the Met Gala this year, Sherman says the drug had become so prevalent it was an “accessory”, even for some of the thinnest famous people. “I do think that it is causing people to think, ‘If it is accessible and I don’t do it, am I going to look like an idiot?’” she says.
謝爾曼說,到今年的Met Gala,這種藥物已經普遍到成了一種「飾品」,甚至對一些最瘦的名人來說都是如此。她說:「我確實認爲這會讓人們產生這樣的想法,『如果它可以買到,而我不服用,我會不會看起來像個白癡?』」
Yet most celebrities, including Kardashian, deny using drugs. Sherman says this is partly because being thin is still associated with signalling that you are a “disciplined” person, who does not “overeat”.
然而,包括卡戴珊在內的大多數名人都否認使用藥物。謝爾曼說,這部分是因爲保持苗條仍然與「自律」、不」暴飲暴食 "聯繫在一起。
Their use of Ozempic, which has been in greater supply than Wegovy, highlights an inequality: the wealthy can get doctors to prescribe the drug, even if they don’t have diabetes, while some real patients have struggled to get hold of it.
他們使用Ozempic——該藥物比Wegovy供應量更大——突顯了一種不平等現象:有錢人可以讓醫生開這種藥,即使他們沒有糖尿病,而一些真正的病人卻很難買到這種藥。
Celebrities’ unofficial promotion has helped create a rush for the drugs, with regulators warning about fake injection pens, and reports that online pharmacies will prescribe it to people so thin they could be suffering from eating disorders. The surge in demand has exacerbated supply shortages partly caused by manufacturing problems.
名人的非官方宣傳助長了對該藥的搶購熱潮,監管機構對假冒注射筆發出警告,還有報導稱網上藥店會給那些已經瘦到可能患有飲食紊亂症的人開藥。需求激增加劇了供應短缺,這一部分是生產問題導致的。
Now, the executive management team gets updates on how the drugs are trending on social media every week. Jørgensen wants to shift from a social media debate to a medical discussion with doctors about the benefits. “It creates a sense of urgency in the company to make sure that we communicate in the right way,” he says.
現在,執行管理團隊每週都會收到有關這些藥在社群媒體上流行趨勢的最新資訊。周賦德希望從社群媒體上的爭論轉變爲與醫生就其益處進行討論。他說:「這在公司內部形成一種緊迫感,要確保我們以正確的方式進行溝通。」
A broad impact
廣泛影響
The drugs have jolted financial markets as well as parties for the rich and famous. Emily Field, an analyst at Barclays, jumped out of her chair when she saw the initial data from Novo Nordisk’s cardiac outcomes trial in August. Wegovy had shown it could cut the risk of serious cardiac events such as heart attacks by 20 per cent in overweight or obese patients with cardiovascular disease.
這些藥物不僅震動了金融市場,也震動了富人和名人的聚會。巴克萊分析師艾米麗•菲爾德(Emily Field)在8月份看到諾和諾德心臟預後試驗的初步數據時,從椅子上跳了起來。數據證明,對於患有心血管疾病的超重或肥胖患者,Wegovy可以心臟病發作等嚴重心臟事件的風險降低20%。
It was the first solid evidence that the drug was not just a slimming jab, but a powerful preventive tool. Shares jumped too: up as much as 16 per cent as even generalist investors started to appreciate this was a drug that could transform healthcare.
這是第一個確鑿的證據,證明這種藥物不僅是一種減肥針,還是一種強大的預防工具。該公司股價也大幅上漲:漲幅高達16%,就連多面手投資者也開始意識到,這是一種可能改變醫療行業的藥物。
“It just woke up so many people to the whole story,” says Field. “It was such a game-changer.” Field says the drugs are now rightly seen as a technology with widespread impact, like artificial intelligence. Suddenly, consumer analysts were worrying about how the drug could dampen appetite for products from companies such as doughnut maker Krispy Kreme, while medical technology investors worried it could be the end of bariatric surgery.
菲爾德說:「它讓很多人意識到了事情的全部。它完全是一個顛覆者。」菲爾德說,這些藥物現在被正確地視爲一種具有廣泛影響的技術,就像人工智慧一樣。突然之間,消費者分析師開始擔心這種藥物會抑制人們對甜甜圈製造商Krispy Kreme等公司產品的興趣,而醫療技術投資者則擔心這可能是減肥手術的終結。
[Wegovy] just woke up so many people to the whole story. It was such a game-changer
(Wegovy)只是讓很多人意識到事情的全部。它完全是一個顛覆者
The clinical trial was one of the first big decisions Jørgensen made after taking over as CEO in 2017. The move carried substantial risk: it can cost hundreds of millions of dollars to test a drug on 17,000 people and there was no guarantee that the results would demonstrate broad health benefits. Now the bet has paid off, Jørgensen hopes to use the data to convince health systems that the drug will save lives and cut costs.
其臨牀試驗是周賦德在2017年接任首席執行長後做出的第一批重大決定之一。此舉蘊含著巨大的風險:在1.7萬人身上試驗一種藥物可能需要花費數億美元,而且無法保證試驗結果能夠證明該藥物具有廣泛的健康益處。現在,賭注得到了回報,周賦德希望利用這些數據說服醫療系統,這種藥物將挽救生命並降低成本。
Fatima Cody Stanford, an expert in obesity medicine at Harvard Medical School, says the drugs will be “highly influential” and may lead to a decline in the need for treatment for conditions such as hypertension, kidney disease, fatty liver disease, diabetes and sleep apnoea.
哈佛醫學院(Harvard Medical School)肥胖醫學專家法蒂瑪•科迪•史丹佛(Fatima Cody Stanford)表示,這些藥物將「極具影響力」,可能會減少對高血壓、腎病、脂肪肝、糖尿病和睡眠呼吸暫停等疾病的治療需求。
Novo Nordisk is running a late-stage trial to see if semaglutide could treat the widespread neurodegenerative disease Alzheimer’s, and external researchers are also intrigued about the potential for the drugs to be used to treat alcohol addiction.
諾和諾德正在進行一項後期試驗,以確定司美格魯肽是否可以治療廣泛存在的神經退行性疾病阿爾茨海默氏症,外部研究人員也對這種藥物用於治療酒精成癮的潛力很感興趣。
But there are still problems to solve. Many patients struggle with side effects of nausea, diarrhoea and constipation, especially in the early stages, clinicians are worried about muscle loss, and the European regulator is investigating if there’s a link between taking the drugs and suicidal thoughts.
但仍有一些問題需要解決。許多患者都在與噁心、腹瀉和便祕等副作用作鬥爭,尤其是在用藥初期,臨牀醫生擔心肌肉萎縮,歐洲監管機構正在調查服用這些藥物與自殺念頭之間是否存在聯繫。
For healthcare systems, the biggest concern is that when people stop taking the drugs, they regain weight. Some payers are reluctant to commit to covering a drug for the rest of people’s lives, especially when the potential pool of patients is so vast. Some 42 per cent of the population in the US is obese, and 17 per cent in the EU, while many overweight people could also benefit.
對於醫療保健系統來說,最大的擔憂是,當人們停止服用這些藥物時,他們的體重會反彈。一些支付方不願承諾爲患者的餘生支付藥物費用,尤其是在潛在患者羣體如此龐大的情況下。美國約有42%的人口肥胖,歐盟爲17%,而許多超重的人也可以從中受益。
The drugs risk exacerbating health inequities. Wegovy has a US list price of $1,300 a month, though the net cost is usually about half that, and the price in Europe is lower. Without greater insurance coverage in the US, or more widespread availability in European public health systems, they will be out of reach for many of the poorest.
這些藥物還可能加劇健康不平等。Wegovy在美國的標價是每月1300美元,但淨成本通常只有這個價格的一半左右,歐洲的價格也更低。如果美國的保險覆蓋面不擴大,或者歐洲的公共醫療系統不能更廣泛地提供這種藥物,那麼對於許多最貧窮的人來說,這種藥物將是可望而不可及的。
This cost has also raised some questions about the likely cost savings. Airfinity, a health analytics firm, estimated that even after a 65 per cent rebate on the list price, it could cost $1.1mn spent on Wegovy to prevent one heart attack.
這一成本也引發了一些關於可能節省成本的問題。據一家醫療分析公司Airfinity估算,即使按標價打折65%,要預防一次心臟病發作,也需要在Wegovy上花費110萬美元。
Mark Sculpher, director of the centre for health economics at the University of York, says the jury is still out on the long-term effects of the drugs, which could affect their true value. Like most drugs, they were approved on a few years of data. “Pharmaceutical companies are forever promising hugely transformational, innovative products,” he says. “And sometimes they are. But very often they are not.”
約克大學衛生經濟學中心主任馬克•斯卡爾弗(Mark Sculpher)說,這些藥物的長期效果還沒有定論,這可能會影響它們的真正價值。與大多數藥物一樣,這些藥物是根據幾年的數據獲得批准的。他說:「製藥公司總是承諾會推出具有巨大變革意義的創新產品。有時候確實是這樣。但通常情況下並非如此。」
Jørgensen believes by getting ahead of disease, governments and insurers can save on the more than 80 per cent of healthcare funding that ends up being spent on chronic conditions.
周賦德認爲,透過提前預防疾病,政府和保險公司可以節省超過80%的醫療資金,而這些資金最終都花在了慢性病上。
He is not alone in hoping for a substantial shift towards prevention in healthcare, but systems have struggled to make the change when their tight budgets are stretched across an already sick and ageing population. To try to reach more patients, Novo Nordisk is in talks with health systems about flexible pricing to allow them to defer some of the cost of the drugs until they are seeing benefits.
他並不是唯一一個希望醫療保健向預防方向作出重大轉向的人,但當醫療系統緊張的預算已被現有患者和老齡化人口攤薄,該系統很難作出改變。爲了讓更多的患者受益,諾和諾德公司正在與醫療系統商討靈活定價的問題,允許它們推遲支付部分藥物費用,直到看到療效爲止。
Jørgensen sees continued innovation as another way to help make the argument. Next year, the company will complete a late-stage trial of its next generation drug CagriSema, which analysts expect to show even more significant weight loss, and report data on an early study of a promising obesity pill. In the long run, he dreams of “vaccine-type interventions” for chronic diseases and is investing in discovering how to prevent obesity in the first place.
周賦德認爲,持續創新是另一種有助於論證的方式。明年,該公司將完成下一代藥物CagriSema 的後期試驗,分析師預計該藥的減重效果將更加顯著,公司還將報告一種前景看好的減肥藥的早期研究數據。從長遠來看,他夢想對慢性疾病進行「疫苗式干預」,並正在投資如何從一開始就預防肥胖症。
Schindler, the chief scientific officer, believes Jørgensen is probably “to some degree, embarrassed” to be chosen as the Person of the Year. “I think Lars would feel that it [the recognition] stands for many other people, it stands for an organisation, it stands for a team,” he says.
首席科學官辛德勒認爲,周賦德對被選爲年度人物可能「在某種程度上感到尷尬」。他說:「我認爲周賦德會覺得,(這一榮耀)代表了許多其他人,代表了一個組織,代表了一個團隊。」
Jørgensen says the company has long believed in the importance of the obesity drugs but that the world is only just waking up to their potential impact.
周賦德表示,該公司長期以來一直相信減肥藥的重要性,但世界纔剛剛意識到它們的潛在影響。
“I have many times over the years said that I believe this has the potential to be one of the most meaningful medical interventions in terms of what it does to individual patients,” Jørgensen says, “but also the contribution it [can make] to healthcare systems.”
周賦德說:「這麼多年來,我曾多次說過,我相信就其對患者個人的作用而言,它有可能成爲最有意義的醫療干預措施之一,同時,它也[爲]醫療保健系統做出了貢獻。」