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Novo Nordisk announced Friday that it would part ways with its longtime CEO, who steered the company into an unprecedented boom time for weight-loss drugs. The Ozempic makers chief executive, Lars Fruergaard Jrgensen, first joined the company as an economist in 1991. Jrgensen has served as Novo Nordisks CEO since 2017, leading the company before the current gold rush in weight-loss drug development was imaginable. Novo Nordisk cited market challenges and its declining share price in a press release announcing the leadership shake-up. Jrgensen will stay on as CEO temporarily for an undetermined period of time to support a smooth transition as the company looks for his replacement. Novo Nordisks value more than quintupled between 2017 and 2024, but the companys shares have fallen sharply since late last year, weighed down by Big Pharma rivals catching up and the proliferation of compounding pharmacies handing out affordable knockoffs of its signature drugs amid supply shortages. First out of the gate but struggling to stay ahead As a 100-year old company focused on treating diabetes since day one, Novo Nordisk initially enjoyed a first-mover advantagebut that edge has faded. Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide drug is in a class of drugs known as GLP-1 agonists, which simulate a hormone that would naturally be released during digestion. Its drug, marketed as Ozempic, was originally developed to treat type 2 diabetes. In 2021, the Food and Drug Administration approved Wegovy, a version of Novo Nordisks medication designed for weight loss and the first drug in that category to be approved since 2014. Novo Nordisks American competitor Eli Lilly made up ground quickly, securing FDA approval for its diabetes drug Mounjaro and its weight-management counterpart Zepbound in 2022 and 2023, respectively. Eli Lilly shares have soared since those drugs started hitting the market, showing no sign of flagging. Jrgensen was well aware that Novo Nordisk would need to push an aggressive pace of drug development to stay ahead. In late 2023, the company announced that it would buy a startup developing weight management drugs for $1.07 billion, just one massive deal in a flurry of acquisitions meant to shore up its defenses. A drug for everything To stay ahead, Novo Nordisk is pushing its semaglutide treatments into other areas of medicine. Cardiologists started being interested in GLP-1s, Jrgensen told Fast Company in 2023. The whole medical understanding of the link between obesity and diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and all of these cardiometabolic diseases is being understood now. Last year, the FDA approved Wegovy to reduce the risk of heart disease, and in January Ozempic got the green light for treating kidney disease. For semaglutide drugsand their counterparts from rival companiesosteoarthritis, Alzheimers disease, liver disease, and even addiction are all in play in the race for the next big thing. This week, the company announced a $2.2 billion partnership with Bay Area biotech startup Septerna to develop a pill form of its weight-loss and diabetes drugs. Novo Nordisk characterized Jrgensens departure as a mutual agreement but noted that the change was the wish of the Novo Nordisk Foundation, an independent nonprofit that controls the companyan ownership structure that is common among large Danish businesses. The foundation is designed to steer leadership from a long-term perspective and also doles out large scientific grants on topics ranging from endocrinology to climate-adapted soil. Lars Rebien Srensen, who chairs the Novo Nordisk Foundation, will join its board as an observer while the company seeks a new CEO. Srensen, Novo Nordisk’s CEO from 2000 to 2016, is expected to be nominated for a seat on the board during an annual meeting in 2026. We think, of course, in delivering here and now, but equally we think in decades forward, Jrgensen told Fast Company in 2023, describing the foundations role.
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In February, the newly appointed chair of the Federal Communications Commission opened a probe into Verizon just as the company was awaiting approval for a sizable acquisition. The telecom giant had announced plans last fall to purchase internet provider Frontier in a $20 billion deal, which was under review by the FCC. Verizon has now made the decision to cut its DEI programs, seemingly in response to FCC chair Brendan Carr’s investigation into its diversity practices. In a letter to the agency obtained by Reuters, Verizon disclosed that the company would scrub employee trainings of any references to DEI, along with changing its practices around hiring, supplier diversity, and corporate sponsorships. This afternoon, barely a day after receiving the letter from Verizon, the FCC announced that the acquisition of Frontier had been approved. According to Reuters, Verizon is eliminating workforce representation goals and will no longer tie compensation for managers to progress on hiring women and underrepresented employees. The company is also taking down its public page on “diversity and inclusion” and will no longer use the term DEI in its external messaging. (Verizon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.) Verizon conceded in its letter that “some DEI policies and practices could be associated with discrimination.” In a statement, Carr applauded Verizon’s decision, calling it a “good and important step forwardone that promotes equal opportunity, nondiscrimination, and the public interest.” Verizon is hardly the first company to divest from its DEI commitments or make significant changes to those programs. Since January, President Trump has issued a wide range of executive orders targeting DEI programs across the federal government and private sector. Many major employers have pulled back on DEI to shield against potential litigation, accelerating a shift that had already been underway since the Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action in 2023. Like Verizon, a number of companies have stopped tying executive compensation to diversity metrics, while tech giants like Meta and Google have also eliminated representation goals. It’s not yet clear which corporate sponsorships will be impacted by the changes at Verizon, but other companies have stopped sponsoring Pride events. Still, Verizon’s decision stands out as an example of how the private sector is responding to explicit pressure from the Trump administration to stamp out DEI programs. In an interview with CNBC, Carr was direct about what companies would need to do if they were seeking FCC approval. We’ve told everybody that’s trying to do deals before the FCC that they need to end their own promotion of invidious forms of DEI,” he said. Carr also specifically noted that the agency would be willing to block Verizon’s deal with Frontier over the company’s DEI practices. The FCC has already launched similar probes into Comcast and Disney to investigate their DEI practices. Paramount’s negotiations with the FCC over its proposed merger with Skydance reportedly involved a commitment to steer clear of DEI programs, according to the Wall Street Journalin line with changes the company already made earlier this year. Other commissioners at the agency have been critical of Carr’s investigations into DEI practices. “Stoking partisan culture wars is not the FCCs job,” FCC commissioner Anna Gomez said following the probe into Comcast. In a statement, FCC commissioner Geoffrey Starks added that from what I know, this enforcement action is out of our lane and out of our reach.”
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For NFL teams social media departments, May 14 is the Super Bowl. NFL Schedule Release Day has become an unofficial holiday on the league calendar. All 32 teams unveil their season schedules in the most creative and entertaining ways possiblechasing quote tweets and marketing impressions before the internet crowns a winner. This year, the Los Angeles Chargers dropped a Minecraft-inspired video, complete with a nod to a viral Starbucks altercation between NFL reporters Ian Rapoport and Jordan Schultz during the combine. Give the Chargers every award, Pro Football Talk posted on X. The Commanders put their own spin on the classic game Rollercoaster Tycoon, while the Atlanta Falcons went with a Mario Kart theme. The New York Giants reimagined their 2025 opponents as contestants on Love Island. Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Eagles werent done flexing last seasons success. This unofficial competition started nearly a decade ago with the Seattle Seahawks cupcake schedule video. What couldve been a simple email has since evolved into full-blown productionswhere the schedule itself can feel like an afterthought. Brainstorming starts as early as December, months before the reveal. Teams usually dont receive their finalized schedules until the day before the official release, prompting a last-minute sprint to produce and post final edits within 24 hours. Everything is kept under tight wraps until 8 p.m. ET, May 15. People will ask me, said Megan Julian, the Chargers senior director of digital and social media, in an interview with Sports Illustrated. I definitely have been on Hinge [the dating app] and people are like, What are yall doing [for this years schedule video]? This is Hinge, bro. We gotta calm down. We gotta chill out. Im not telling you. And, as a truly unbiased Brit: this year, the Tennessee Titans won.
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