Lars Sorensen, a cycling and fitness fanatic who recently completed a 100-mile ride through Nevada's Death Valley, is leading the pharmaceutical industry's fight against diabetes. The 54-year-old heads Novo Nordisk, now Denmark's biggest company by market value and the world's largest maker of insulin.

The drugmaker is one of the winners of the current financial crisis as its focus on diabetes, a growing health problem around the world, has brought predictions of 20 per cent annual sales growth for the next decade. It plans to hire thousands of workers in the same period.