Novo Nordisk A/S is a Danish multinational pharmaceutical company headquartered in Bagsværd, Denmark, with production facilities in nine countries, and affiliates or offices in five countries. Novo Nordisk is controlled by majority shareholder Novo Holdings A/S which holds approximately 25% of its shares and a relative majority (45%) of its voting shares. Novo Nordisk manufactures and markets pharmaceutical products and services, specifically diabetes care medications and devices. Novo Nordisk is also involved with hemostasis management, growth hormone therapy and hormone replacement therapy. The company makes several drugs under various brand names, including Levemir, Tresiba, NovoLog, Novolin R, NovoSeven, NovoEight and Victoza. Novo Nordisk employs more than 48,000 people globally, and markets its products in 168 countries. The corporation was created in 1989, through a merger of two Danish companies which date back to the 1920s. The Novo Nordisk logo is the Apis bull, one of the sacred animals of ancient Egypt. Novo Nordisk is a full member of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA). The company was ranked 25th among 100 Best Companies to Work For in 2010, and 72nd in 2014 by Fortune. In January 2012, Novo Nordisk was named as the most sustainable company in the world by the business magazine Corporate Knights while spin-off company Novozymes was named fourth. Novo Nordisk is the largest pharmaceutical company in Denmark. History 1923 Nordisk Insulinlaboratorium commercialises the production of insulin. 1986 Novo Industri A/S acquired the Ferrosan Group, now named as "Novo Nordisk Pharmatech A/S". 1989 Novo Industri A/S (Novo Terapeutisk Laboratorium) and Nordisk Gentofte A/S (Nordisk Insulinlaboratorium) merged to become Novo Nordisk A/S, the world's largest producer of insulin with headquarters in Bagsværd, Copenhagen. 1991 Novo Nordisk Engineering (now NNE A/S) demerged after working as in-house consultants at Novo Nordisk for years, to provide standard engineering services (end to end engineering) to the pharma manufacturing companies. 1994 Novo Nordisk's existing information technology units was spun out as NNIT A/S. The company was converted into a wholly owned aktieselskab in 2004 In March 2015, NNIT was floated on the NASDAQ OMX Nordic. 2000 Novo's enzymes business, Novozymes A/S, was spun-out. 2013 Novo acquired Xellia for $700 million. 2015 The company announced it would collaborate with Ablynx, using its nanobody technology to develop at least one new drug candidate. 2018 In January, Reuters reported that Novo had offered to acquire Ablynx for $3.1 billion - having made an