Novo Holdings A/S, the investment vehicle that controls Novo Nordisk A/S, is investing billions less in new life science companies, exercising caution because of geopolitical uncertainty and technology disruptions.
“We’re right in the heart of a pretty opaque period right now in many ways,” Chief Executive Officer Kasim Kutay said in an interview. The restraint will last “until we feel that we have better answers to some of the key due diligence questions that we’re asking today that we actually weren’t asking just two, three years ago.”
The company faced a challenging year in 2025 as the value of its biggest investment, drugmaker Novo Nordisk, plummeted due to competition for blockbuster obesity and diabetes treatments. The slump reduced the value of the holding company’s assets by about a third to 694 billion Danish kroner ($107 billion), it said in a report Thursday.
Novo Holdings manages the assets of the Novo Nordisk Foundation, which include life-science companies and capital investments in sectors outside the health space. Potential target companies at the moment are struggling to adequately answer questions around the impact of national political agendas, geopolitical shifts and technological advances such as artificial intelligence, according to Kutay.
Novo invested €1.8 billion in life sciences in 2025, down from €4.6 billion a year earlier, and it needs more certainty before it can jump back into a “full-deployment” mode of investing, he said.
Novo Holdings is Novo Nordisk’s controlling shareholder. The drugmaker faces a steep sales decline as it grapples with cheaper copycat drugs and competition from US rival Eli Lilly & Co. The stock fell about 48% last year and another 23% since the start of 2026 as a next-generation obesity shot delivered less weight loss than hoped.
The fund is cautious around investing in diabetes and obesity given its existing exposure to that market, but one area in focus is neurology, Kutay said. He pointed to some advances in Alzheimer’s disease.
“We’re on the foothills now of some very important progress and innovation in neuroscience,” he said.
Even with a cautious outlook for the year, Kutay wants to grow in countries including India and China. The investment fund has already opened offices in Asia and in January invested in an Indian hospital chain.
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