By Ben Hirschler and Scott Malone
LONDON/BOSTON (Reuters) – When Novo Nordisk’s chief financial officer met marketing colleagues last Friday the conversation moved far beyond the usual discussion of sales and performance. Jesper Brandgaard asked a simple, far-reaching question: how would the firm set prices for two pivotal new insulin products if the euro collapsed?
The Danish firm, the world’s biggest maker of insulin for the treatment of diabetes, sits outside the euro zone but sells into it. It’s a question that is being echoed – in various forms – in the boardrooms of banks, brokerages, trading houses, law firms and the world’s leading manufacturers.
“It’s hard to make detailed plans but we need to think through how our pricing strategy would fare if there were suddenly a dismantling of the euro,” Brandgaard told Reuters. “How do we avoid falling into a trap? This is the first time I’ve asked such a question. It’s a topic that is increasingly on the radar.”
In the case of the products in question – Degludec and DegludecPlus, two ultra-long-acting insulins – Novo Nordisk has time on its side. The new drugs are still working their way through the regulatory approval process and probably will not reach the
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