That old law of capitalism is once again being borne out with Denmark's Novo Nordisk, a pioneer in anti-obesity treatments and, until a few months ago, still Europe's largest stockmarket capitalization.
The pharmaceutical group is wrapping up a true annus horribilis. In the anti-obesity segment, it has been pipped at the post by US rivals Eli Lilly and Pfizer, the latter having snatched Metsera away after a particularly frenzied bidding process.
On the R&D front, the group has recently suffered a setback with its potential treatment for Alzheimer's disease - a therapeutic area in which, clearly, all contenders keep biting the dust - while its pipeline remains excessively concentrated on semaglutide variants.
Against a backdrop of crisis for the group, whose share price has halved in 2025, the management team has been completely overhauled. However, as a pure company insider, Mike Doustdar has not been fully embraced by investors.
They had in fact hoped to see an outsider - read: an Anglo-Saxon profile - appointed instead. However, in a move that is fairly unusual for Denmark, Doustdar took office by immediately launching a round of layoffs.
Novo, which generated $10bn in cash profits last year - for a market capitalization of $200bn - is for now redirecting all of its earnings into external growth.
In this context, the $9bn returned to shareholders last year - two-thirds in dividends, one-third in share buybacks - was financed by an increase in debt; for the time being, this in no way undermines the group's extremely robust balance sheet.
On the face of it, Doustdar's aggressive tactics over Metsera show that he intends to press ahead down this path. Which, by extension, keeps investors' doubts alive about the depth of Novo's pipeline.
