Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
American demand for weight-loss drugs has grown large enough to move an entire national economy. Denmark’s central bank, Danmarks Nationalbank, has sharply raised its growth forecast for the country, crediting the surge in U.S. sales of Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy for the shift.
Back in March, the bank projected the Danish economy would grow 1.8% in both 2026 and 2027, before ticking up to 2% in 2028. Its latest outlook, published in September, now puts 2026 growth at 4%, a 2.2 percentage-point jump from the earlier estimate, with 2027 revised up to 2.3% before settling back to 2% in 2028.
“The Danish economy has so far defied the global turmoil. We expect strong GDP growth this year, but with no signs of increased wage or pressure,” said Danmarks Nationalbank Governor Christian Kettel Thomsen, pointing to the fact that most of the manufacturing driving the boom happens outside Denmark’s borders.
That geography matters. The bank cautioned that because a large share of the growth comes from production abroad, it draws on Danish labor and capital only to a limited extent, meaning the windfall shows up in GDP and export figures without translating into the kind of domestic wage pressure or hiring surge that typically accompanies rapid growth.
The forecast upgrade comes despite Novo Nordisk agreeing to cut prices on its weight-loss and diabetes drugs in the U.S. by as much as 30%, a concession that might have been expected to dent revenue projections. Instead, volume growth in the world’s largest pharmaceutical market appears to be more than offsetting the lower price per prescription.
Danmarks Nationalbank flagged several risks that could still weigh on the outlook, including rising inflation expectations, elevated oil prices, and continued uncertainty stemming from conflict in the Middle East. But for now, a drug developed to treat diabetes and manage weight has become one of the clearest examples yet of a single company’s product reshaping a country’s macroeconomic trajectory.
