The company's focus was the research, development and production of industrial enzymes, microorganisms, and biopharmaceutical ingredients.

[3] In 1925, the brothers Harald and Thorvald Pedersen founded Novo Terapeutisk Laboratorium and Nordisk Insulinlaboratorium with the aim to produce insulin.

[4][5] In the late 1980s Novozymes presented the world's first fat-splitting enzyme for detergents manufactured with genetically engineered microorganisms, called Lipolase.

Amongst them were the Brazilian bio agricultural company Turfal and German pharmaceutical, chemical and life science company EMD/Merck Crop BioScience Inc.[7] These acquisitions made Novozymes a leader in sustainable solutions for the agricultural biological industry.

Hansen had obtained regulatory approval for a merger,[12] and on the following day, the name of the combined company was revealed as Novonesis.