Novo Nordisk & Eli Lilly: Manufacturing Lessons from the GLP-1 Giants

As GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Zepbound took the world by storm, Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly faced a massive question: how do you fill the need at maximum speed? This week, we pull back the curtain on the strategies that allowed both companies to scale their manufacturing and cement market dominance, offering takeaways for any leader navigating unprecedented demand. Featuring: Principal Analysts Caroline Chumakov and Jenna Fink.

• Contextualizing the appetite for GLP-1s (0:46)
• Build, buy, acquire: How Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly are meeting demand (04:05)
• The implications of Novo Nordisk’s $16.5 billion Catalent acquisition (05:53)
• How to decide whether to acquire or outsource (07:23)
• Where in the world is GLP-1 manufacturing going next? (10:36)
• DTC, telehealth, and the future of GLP-1 channel strategy (13:16)
• How AI is driving pharma innovation at Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson, and Merck (17:13)