Novo Nordisk taps OpenAI

Novo Nordisk said Tuesday it will use OpenAI tools across drug research, factories and sales operations as it races to speed up development. (reuters.com) (biospace.com) The Danish drugmaker said the partnership will start with pilot programs in research and development, manufacturing and commercial teams, with broader rollout planned by the end of 2026. Novo said the system will be used to analyze large datasets, identify drug candidates and improve supply chain and distribution work. (biospace.com) (pharmaceutical-technology.com) Chief executive Mike Doustdar said the goal is to cut the time from early research to patient use, and Novo said the partnership includes data-governance rules and human oversight. Financial terms were not disclosed. (cnbc.com) (bloomberg.com) (biospace.com) Drugmakers use artificial intelligence to sift through lab results, trial records and manufacturing data the way a search engine sorts billions of pages, looking for patterns humans would take longer to spot. Novo is applying that approach not just to molecule hunting, but also to production planning and internal workflows. (cnbc.com) (wsj.com) (marketwatch.com) The timing is tight for Novo. Reuters reported the company has fallen behind Eli Lilly in the obesity-drug market, and Eli Lilly won United States approval for a weight-loss pill on April 1, 2026, opening a new front in the rivalry. (reuters.com 1) (reuters.com 2) Novo is still huge in obesity medicine. In its 2025 annual report, the company said obesity-care sales rose 26% in Danish kroner to 82.3 billion kroner, and it held a 59.6% branded volume share of the global glucagon-like peptide-1 obesity market. (novonordisk.com) But the company has been under pressure after mixed results from its next wave of products. Reuters reported in February that CagriSema, Novo’s next-generation obesity drug, underperformed Eli Lilly’s Zepbound in a head-to-head trial. (reuters.com) (usnews.com) Novo has already been building an artificial-intelligence stack. Nvidia said in June 2025 that it was working with Novo Nordisk and Denmark’s Center for AI Innovation on drug-discovery projects, and the OpenAI deal expands that push into factories and commercial systems. (nvidia.com) (bloomberg.com) Investors treated Tuesday’s announcement as a modest positive. CNBC reported Novo shares were up about 1.4% in premarket trading after the news, a small bounce for a company trying to find its next obesity hit faster. (cnbc.com)