A Blue Sky Mindset

When a young girl handed Novo Nordisk Taiwan General Manager Steve Profit a small handwritten note that translated as ‘thank you for taking away the pain’, it served as a poignant reminder of the ongoing importance of the company’s work.

Established in Denmark in 1923, Novo Nordisk has been treating patients with diabetes for 100 years. Today, half of those suffering with the disease globally use its treatments.

It’s targeted approach serves the company well, but as it advances confidently toward a goal of eliminating diabetes altogether, it has broadened its scope.

Novo Nordisk founders August and Marie Krogh, brought insulin back to Denmark from the University of Toronto in 1923.

“Some companies are motivated by money but for us, it’s about making a difference to people’s lives.”

Over the last few years, Novo Nordisk has ventured into the spheres of obesity and chronic diseases such as hemophilia. And despite this evolution, the underlying motivation remains the same.

“Some companies are motivated by money but for us, it’s about making a difference to people’s lives,” Profit tells The CEO Magazine.

“By investing approximately DKK8 billion [US$1.17 billion] each year for scientific, humanitarian and social purposes through the Novo Nordisk Foundation, we can deliver innovative medicine for our patients and secure the long-term pipeline for Novo Nordisk.”

The Taiwanese branch of the pharmaceutical firm opened 32 years ago, with Profit appointed to lead it in 2019. His diverse professional background, with the previous six years as Novo Nordisk’s Global Director of Sales and Marketing, made him the ideal choice to supercharge local operations.

Local Promise

Already, the company has more than two-and-a-half million patients in Taiwan, but with a population of 23.5 million and diabetes and obesity rife, there is unbridled potential to grow that figure, according to Profit.

When he first touched down in Taipei, he immediately saw the need for swift transformation. “We were launching products once every eight years,” he recalls.

“To build a good house, you need to have a good structure and foundation and in our business that means the people and the products.”

To accelerate the process, Profit turned first to the company’s people, assessing their skills and investing in them to enhance their capabilities through individual training, aligned KPIs and by instilling a ‘blue sky’ mindset.

“To build a good house, you need to have a good structure and foundation and in our business that means the people and the products,” he explains. “By letting people imagine what we could do if we brought in the right drugs, we accelerated things quite rapidly.”

This new momentum has seen Novo Nordisk Taiwan bring six new treatments to patients over the last five years. “We get great feedback from healthcare providers and our patients, which is incredibly motivating for all of us to know we are making change happen,” Profit says.

Next-Gen Treatments

Among the newly expanded range are GLP-1 receptor agonist products, which are medications used to treat type 2 diabetes and obesity with an oral formulation. It’s particularly relevant to the Taiwanese market where a fear of needles is commonplace.

“Taking a tablet, psychologically, is also far better for adherence,” Profit adds.

With around 50.3 percent of Taiwan’s population either overweight or obese, it’s the beginning of what promises to be quite a journey. “It’s a groundbreaking area for us now because many of the patients have not received positive treatment before and don’t know what to expect,” he says.

This is partly due to a reliance on traditional local Chinese medicine to treat such conditions until now, along with the absence of any FDA-approved medication in the market.

To further advance patient treatment, Novo Nordisk Taiwan is working closely with the medical profession and government toward a goal of having obesity recognized as a disease in Taiwan by 2025.

“It’s a groundbreaking area for us now because many of the patients have not received positive treatment before and don’t know what to expect.”

In this manner, and by drawing on Profit’s ‘blue sky mindset’, the company is establishing itself as an authority in Taiwan’s healthcare space, building on growing global attention with some inspired local initiatives.

Having identified adolescents as one of the biggest growth areas for diabetes and obesity in Taiwan, the company is focusing much of its attention on working with young people and families to build healthy habits around eating from an early age.

It has established a professional cycle team, made up entirely of type 1 diabetics, to inspire young kids to exercise, and it is also working with a number of publications and institutions to promote healthy eating.

Such programs are aligned with Novo Nordisk’s core values of ‘being humble’ and its patient-centric focus, according to Profit.

“It makes such a difference to apply well-founded business ethics in everything we do,” he says. “The ambitions do not stop there, and we look forward to seeing continuing improvements to patients’ quality of life and disease management with the ultimate goal to cure diabetes and other chronic diseases.”