Novo Nordisk rebrands as 'Novo', announces cultural reset

Sept 14 - Novo Nordisk NOVOb.CO is changing its day-to-day name to 'Novo', and taking a new approach to company culture as it looks to claw back ground in the fierce obesity drug race, the Danish drugmaker said on Monday.

• Novo, which is slated to unveil details on its business strategy during a Capital Markets Day on September 21, will keep 'Novo Nordisk A/S' as its legal name.

• The company set out on Monday a new cultural strategy it called "The Novo Way", centred around four principles — customer obsession, competitiveness, clarity, and care and integrity.

• The move comes as it faces fierce competition from rival weight-loss drug maker Eli Lilly, investor pressure to deliver new blockbusters, and setbacks to its medicine pipeline.

• The company's Copenhagen shares are down nearly 15% this year, even as its oral GLP-1 outpaces Eli Lilly by hundreds of thousands of U.S. prescriptions per week, according to IQVIA data provided by an analyst.

• Commercial gains have been overshadowed by pipeline trouble, capped by last week’s decision to scrap two late-stage trials for its experimental heart drug ziltivekimab.

(Reporting by Patrick Wingrove in London; Editing by Jan Harvey)