{"href":"https://api.simplecast.com/oembed?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwhatittakes.simplecast.com%2Fepisodes%2Flotte-bjerre-knudsen-ozempic-revolution-g6DzDJHY","width":444,"version":"1.0","type":"rich","title":"Lotte Bjerre Knudsen: Shivering with Curiosity","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_url":"https://image.simplecastcdn.com/images/7ae064ce-9981-4c50-a3f8-e938a6df27f1/8bbd9edd-91e1-40e2-b6db-1eecf23f95fd/whatittakes-knudsen.jpg","thumbnail_height":300,"provider_url":"https://simplecast.com","provider_name":"Simplecast","html":"","height":200,"description":"Ozempic is one of the most important new medications in a generation. The driving force behind it is the Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk, which has been invested in GLP-1 research since the early 1990s. The leading scientist in this domain, a self-described \"nerd,\" who grew up on a farm in Denmark and has no interest in the limelight. Lotte Knudsen started her career working on laundry detergent enzymes, but eventually joined a team at the Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk that was tasked with looking for new treatments for diabetes. She was convinced that a recently discovered human hormone called GLP-1 could be made into a powerful medication, not only for Type 2 diabetes, but also for weight loss. It took 20 years of hard work and persistence for her and her team to figure it out, but their creation now shows promise as a worthy foe of heart disease, kidney disease, Parkinson's, alcoholism & Alzheimer's as well. In this episode Lotte Knudsen tells her story, and we hear from two of the other scientists who made critical contributions to this revolution in medicine: Mads Thomsen and Daniel Drucker."}