Anders Dyhr Toft

Anders Dyhr Toft’s journey to pharma nirvana started in an unusual place: on a rescue helicopter in the French Alps. An avid skier, Toft spent three winters jetting among 14 resorts in the region, providing emergency medical care to individuals injured on the slope. While he passed his summers in a more conventional manner — working in hospitals in and around Denmark — it was the time spent in the air that shaped him as a professional.

“I had the normal white-coat jobs, and I saw it all from above with the helicopter perspective,” he says. “I felt like that covered a lot, especially at a younger age.”

That first job has, in a way, informed everything that followed. Currently a top innovation executive based in Novo Nordisk’s Denmark headquarters, Toft learned much of what he needed to know about collaboration and listening while heli-patroling the slopes.

“If you aren’t able to collaborate in a rescue helicopter when you’re picking up and stabilizing patients, it doesn’t work,” “You can’t sit there and be the ‘smart doctor who knows better.’ You’re a technician. Everybody is even.”

He joined Novo Nordisk around 16 years ago, a decision that owed as much to his curiosity about pharma as to an overarching desire to use his medical degree in a novel manner.

“After those three years in the helicopter, I kind of asked myself, ‘What kind of adult career as a doctor do you want?’” he recalls. “I’m the type of person who likes to know everything before I make a big decision. The only career avenue I knew nothing about was the pharmaceutical industry.”