Hans Duijf, General Manager of Novo Nordisk Taiwan, has spent his entire 28-year career with the Danish pharmaceutical company, a rare tenure in today’s era of executive mobility. Duijf has led affiliates across several regions before arriving in Taiwan eight months ago. A committed advocate of the company’s triple bottom line, he sees strong alignment with Taiwan’s Healthy Taiwan policy agenda.
You have spent 28 years at Novo Nordisk across multiple roles and regions. What has sustained your commitment, and how do you approach your mandate as a general manger in Taiwan?
I think the honest answer is that without a genuine conviction in the mission of the organisation, I would not have survived 28 years. Novo Nordisk’s focus on defeating serious chronic diseases – in particular diabetes and obesity – gives me real meaning when I get out of bed in the morning. I know I am doing something good for people who are living with these conditions, and I know we do that with genuine care for the environment as well. That combination, embedded in what we call the Novo Nordisk Way, is something I believe in deeply rather than simply subscribe to as a matter of policy.
That said, I think it also helps enormously to work for a successful organisation with abundant opportunities for growth. I have kept the last 28 years exciting by taking on new and expanding responsibilities, and by moving between geographies. Arriving in Taiwan is the latest chapter in that journey, and I have to say I am genuinely energised by it – a strong team, and a set of challenges that I find both professionally stimulating and personally meaningful.
Novo Nordisk is entering a new phase with leadership change, portfolio evolution and a more performance-driven model. How is this shaping your leadership in Taiwan?
High performance has always been part of the organisation’s DNA – that is not new. What is genuinely new and exciting, however, is the nature of the environment in which we are now operating. For roughly a century, Novo Nordisk was a company with an almost singular focus on science, on a defined group of patients who were ill and needed treatment, and on communicating primarily through healthcare professionals. While that focus on science remains fundamental, we are increasingly recognising the profound and long‑term impact that chronic diseases have on patients’ health, daily functioning and overall wellbeing. That world looks very different today.
We now have products that patients are actively seeking out, driven not only by medical need but by a growing awareness of how chronic conditions affect quality of life over time, that physicians want to prescribe in response to demand coming directly from the people walking into their clinics. Our therapies are being discussed continuously on social media by healthcare consumers and patients living with chronic diseases, who are investing in their own health and taking personal responsibility for it and seeking solutions that can meaningfully improve their long‑term health outcomes and life trajectories. That shift – from a pure science and physician-driven model toward something that has certain elements of a consumer health dynamic, and one that places the patient and their lived experience at the centre, – is having a dramatic impact on how we need to operate. Professionally speaking, I genuinely believe there is no more exciting company to be leading right now than Novo Nordisk. We are at the very forefront of that transition, addressing some of the most serious chronic health challenges facing patients and society today, and Taiwan is a market where that plays out in particularly dynamics ways.
Asia is a key growth region. Where does Taiwan sit within that strategy, and how does its potential compare with other markets?
From a growth perspective, the trajectory is consistent with what I have observed throughout my career: the US and certain European markets tend to be at the frontier of adoption, and the trends that are visible there today are a reliable indicator of what will follow elsewhere. GLP-1 therapy adoption is high in the US and in several European markets – millions of people in the UK alone are currently using GLP-1 treatments. The same underlying trends – a growing population actively seeking to improve their long-term health – will play out here. We are simply at an earlier point in terms of the adoption curve.
What is particularly striking about Taiwan specifically is that fewer than two percent of people living with obesity are currently receiving any form of treatment. That gap represents both the scale of unmet need and the potential opportunity to address it. Those rates are currently higher in the US and the UK. The same trajectory will emerge here, and we are actively working with relevant stakeholders to expand access to our innovation in anticipation of that.
With GLP-1 therapies for obesity paid out of pocket and direct-to-consumer advertising restricted, how are you approaching patient engagement and marketing?
It is a genuinely interesting context to navigate. Taiwan does not permit direct-to-consumer promotional advertising for prescription medicines, which is an important distinction from the US model and also from Hong Kong. The regulatory environment around digital health is also highly structured – third-party advertising of medical services and consultations online, as well as home delivery of medicines, are not permitted. So the usual levers that consumer-facing healthcare companies in other markets might reach for are not available to us here.
What we are actively pursuing instead is a deliberate strategy around disease awareness – informing patients and healthcare consumers about their conditions and their options in a rigorously non-branded, scientifically balanced way. The goal is to ensure that wherever and whenever someone is seeking information about diabetes or obesity, accurate and balanced information is available to them. It is a different model, and in some ways a more disciplined one, but it is the right approach for this market and I think it is aligned with how Novo Nordisk prefers to operate in any case.
Is reimbursement for GLP-1 obesity treatment a realistic near-term objective in Taiwan, and how are you working toward it?
It is an aspiration we hold clearly and are working toward systematically, though I would not expect an overnight transformation. To be clear, GLP-1 therapy is already reimbursed for some patients with diabetes in Taiwan, under clearly defined criteria. It is for patients with obesity where the treatment is currently fully out-of-pocket.
What encourages me is the direction of travel globally. In the UK, for example, NICE has recently recommended reimbursement for patients with obesity and heart failure. The body of clinical evidence demonstrating the broader health benefits of GLP-1 therapy is strong and continues to strengthen, and that is gradually convincing payers around the world that reimbursement makes economic sense. Here in Taiwan, we are at an early stage of that journey. The dialogue with health authorities is constructive – I have not encountered anyone who disputes that GLP-1 therapy delivers clinical benefit. The challenge, which is entirely understandable, is managing the budget impact given the scale of the eligible population. Our task is to work with authorities steadily and collaboratively toward a model that allows access to expand in a financially responsible and sustainable way.
Beyond GLP-1 therapies, what else is driving growth for Novo Nordisk in Taiwan?
What struck me immediately upon arriving in Taiwan was the exceptional strength of our insulin portfolio here. Approximately one in two patients globally uses a Novo Nordisk insulin, but in Taiwan, that figure rises to around two in three – a remarkable level of commitment from the healthcare professional community, and a testament to the work the local team has done over many years. That is a healthy and growing foundation to build from.
The incremental growth, however, is clearly coming from our GLP-1 innovation and, increasingly, from the obesity indication. We also have a haemophilia portfolio and rare endocrine treatments, including a weekly growth hormone formulation that we launched in Taiwan just last weekend. Our aspiration is to ensure that all innovations available in our global portfolio are also available to patients in Taiwan, and I think the Taiwan regulatory authorities should be recognised for the speed with which they are generally approving new therapies.
There remains a significant lag between regulatory approval and reimbursement. How are you advocating for faster patient access?
It is an important distinction to make: the speed I was referring to is market entry approval, not reimbursement. On reimbursement timelines, I agree there is room for continued progress. What I find encouraging is that Taiwan has established special funding mechanisms for certain oncology treatments, which has meaningfully improved access to cancer medicines. I see a genuine opportunity to explore for something similar in the context of serious chronic diseases – specifically in support of the Healthy Taiwan policy goals.
When I read through the Healthy Taiwan strategy shortly after arriving, I was struck by how closely its objectives align with our own mission. The goals around reducing mortality from serious chronic diseases, tackling the three highs – elevated blood glucose, blood pressure, and cholesterol – and addressing the impact of obesity are almost word for word consistent with what Novo Nordisk is here to do. From that perspective, discussing for a dedicated funding mechanism for chronic disease treatment is not simply a commercial argument – it is a public health argument that I believe is genuinely in Taiwan’s interest.
There is also an economic dimension worth raising. Taiwan’s GDP is now broadly comparable with Japan and Spain, and yet healthcare spending on innovative medicines remains relatively lower than in some peer economic. As Taiwan faces the dual challenge of an ageing population and the need to sustain a healthy and productive workforce, this is precisely the moment for authorities to consider further investment in health. The funding may be available. The question is whether the political will exists to direct it there.
How are you positioning Novo Nordisk as a constructive partner to the authorities rather than simply a commercial advocate?
I think it starts with access, which in Taiwan is relatively well established compared with many other markets. This week alone is fairly representative: yesterday we had a substantive dialogue with the Director General of the Taiwan FDA, and later this week we will meet with the National Health Insurance Administration. That kind of regular, professional engagement is genuinely possible here, and we value it.
We pursue those conversations both as a company directly and through the European Chamber of Commerce in Taiwan, where I serve as one of the directors. The pharmaceutical group within the Chamber has a clear agenda around supporting discussion on increased innovation funding and the potential for specific budget allocation to support the Healthy Taiwan chronic disease goals. The tone of those conversations is collaborative rather than adversarial, which I think reflects well on the authorities here. There is a genuine openness to dialogue, and we try to bring international reference points – the UK model, for example, is frequently cited by health authorities themselves as a system worth learning from – to help inform those discussions in a constructive way.
What is Novo Nordisk’s approach to clinical trials in Taiwan, and how does Taiwan fit into the company’s global development strategy?
We have an in-house team of clinical research associates executing on behalf of our global development programmes, and I think that team is a reflection of two things: the quality of our own people, and the quality of the local investigators we collaborate with. High clinical standards and cost that remain competitive are the two characteristics that genuinely stand out about Taiwan as a clinical trial location. Those are meaningful advantages in a global development context.
Where I see an opportunity for Taiwan to further strengthen its attractiveness is in continuing to streamline the administrative and approval process for clinical trials. The current experience can involve navigating multiple review and approval steps sequentially, which adds time and complexity. A genuine more integrated model for clinical trial approvals would make Taiwan considerably more competitive as a destination for global development investment.
How do you ensure patient centricity remains central within a commercially driven affiliate?
I have to say that arriving in Taiwan, I was genuinely impressed by how deeply the Novo Nordisk Way has taken root in this organisation. I have worked for this company my entire career, so perhaps I sometimes take its culture for granted – but seeing it reflected so clearly in a team I had only just met was a reminder of how distinctive it actually is. From diversity and inclusion initiatives to environmental commitments, the values are lived here, not merely declared.
My personal goal as General Manager is to ensure that everyone on this team enjoys working for Novo Nordisk as much as I have. I believe firmly that when people are operating as the best version of themselves – when they feel supported, purposeful, and empowered – they also perform at their best. That is not a soft aspiration in tension with commercial rigour; it is, in my experience, the foundation of sustained commercial performance. The Novo Nordisk Way is what has kept me here for 28 years, and it is what I want to protect and strengthen in Taiwan.
On a more personal note – executive tenures of 28 years with a single organisation are genuinely rare in today’s business landscape, where mobility is the norm. What has kept you at Novo Nordisk, and what sustains your motivation on a daily basis?
If I had not liked working here, I would not still be here. But beyond that, I think it comes down to genuine belief in the mission and, critically, in how we choose to execute on it. The ethical dimension of how Novo Nordisk conducts itself as a business matters to me personally – it allows me to maintain my own integrity and credibility, and that is not something I would trade for any other opportunity.
What I have also come to appreciate more deeply as my career has progressed, and particularly in the general manager role, is that this organisation has an extraordinary capacity to make even the most difficult decisions feel navigable. You make hundreds of decisions in a day in this role, and what I have found is that the Novo Nordisk Way has so thoroughly shaped my judgement that I rarely feel adrift in those moments. The organisation has taught me what the right decisions look like, and that is an invaluable thing.
Looking ahead – what are your goals for the affiliate, and for Novo Nordisk’s role in Taiwan more broadly?
At its core, the opportunity here is to substantially grow access to our innovation for people living with diabetes and obesity in Taiwan. When I say access, I mean it in its broadest sense – not only reimbursement, though that matters, but also the overall experience people have when seeking information, engaging with the healthcare system, and taking responsibility for their own health. Disease awareness, digital health, pricing, and reimbursement are all important levers in that effort.
What I find genuinely exciting about the moment we are in is that some of our innovation is uniquely positioned not merely to treat people who are already ill, but to help people remain healthy for longer. That is a meaningful shift in our role – from addressing a defined group of diagnosed patients to contributing to the health of the broader population. That ambition is very much in step with what Healthy Taiwan is trying to achieve, and that alignment does not feel like a coincidence or a convenient talking point. When I first read through the Healthy Taiwan strategy after arriving, I turned to my market access and government affairs team and said it reflected many of the same priorities we focus on. The missions are closely aligned. What is good for Novo Nordisk commercially is, I believe, often consistent with the long-term health interests of Taiwan’s population. That is a rare and fortunate position to be in, and it is one I intend to build on.
