Novo Nordisk (NVO) on Friday announced that Christine Zhou, the longtime head of its China operations, will leave the company by the end of March. Her last day at the company will be March 31, Novo (NONOF) said on its official WeChat account.
Zhou, Global Senior Vice President and China General Manager of Novo (NVO), served Eli Lilly (LLY) for nearly two decades before joining the Danish drugmaker in 2018. She led the weight loss drugmaker’s operations in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, and mainland China.
China generated DKK 18.5B in net sales for the company in 2024, making up ~16% of its total sales with ~11% YoY growth. Zhou has overseen Novo’s (NVO) market rollouts of its GLP-1 blockbuster diabetes drug, Ozempic, and its obesity version, Wegovy, in China.
Her departure comes at a time when the company is engaging in a fierce battle with Eli Lilly (LLY) to improve sales of its GLP-1 products in China ahead of an upcoming patent cliff for semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy, in March.