For decades, Professor Svetlana Mojsov worked in the relative quiet of biochemical research — mapping the behavior of a tiny hormone, testing hypotheses, and publishing findings that few outside her field paused to read. Then came Ozempic, and the world caught up.
On the evening of April 15, at a ceremony in Riyadh under royal patronage, Professor Mojsov received the King Faisal Prize for Medicine — one of the most prestigious scientific honors in the world. Her recognition by the prize, now in its 48th edition and coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the King Faisal Foundation, places her among a lineage of laureates whose work has genuinely reshaped human health.
The Hormone Nobody Knew They Needed
The science behind Mojsov’s recognition centers on glucagon-like peptide-1, or GLP-1 — a naturally occurring hormone that regulates blood sugar, slows digestion, and signals fullness to the brain. In the 1980s and early 1990s, working at Rockefeller University in New York, Mojsov identified the biologically active form of GLP-1 and mapped its receptors in the pancreas, heart, and brain. That research was so foundational that she is listed as co-inventor on the patents licensed to Novo Nordisk — the patents that ultimately gave rise to Victoza, Ozempic, and Rybelsus.
The scale of what those drugs now represent is difficult to overstate. In 2022 alone, an estimated 890 million adults and 160 million children worldwide were living with obesity. The therapies made possible by Mojsov’s early discoveries have become some of the most widely prescribed medications in history, transforming how modern medicine approaches metabolic disease.
Science That Waits for Its Moment
In her acceptance speech, Mojsov reflected on the long arc from lab bench to global pharmacy shelf: “Twenty-five years after we published our findings, Novo Nordisk developed long-lasting injectable GLP-1 analogs for diabetes and obesity. I am humbled that my work, which started 40 years ago with a hypothesis, has benefited the health and lives of millions of people worldwide.”
It is a reminder that foundational science operates on timescales that outpace news cycles — and that prizes like the King Faisal Award serve not only to honor individuals but to illuminate the kind of patient, rigorous inquiry that lasting progress depends on.
Saudi Arabia as a Stage for Global Excellence
The King Faisal Prize was also awarded this year to Professor Carlos Kenig of the University of Chicago, recognized for his transformative contributions to nonlinear partial differential equations — the branch of mathematics that underpins everything from ocean wave modeling to the clarity of modern medical scans. Together, the two laureates represent the prize’s enduring commitment to honoring breakthroughs that matter deeply across human experience.
The fact that this ceremony unfolds in Riyadh carries its own significance. Established in 1979, the King Faisal Prize has long been one of the Arab world’s most respected endorsements of global intellectual achievement. This year’s ceremony, marking both the prize’s 48th edition and the King Faisal Foundation’s half-century milestone, further cements the Kingdom’s role as a destination that not only produces ambition but chooses, deliberately, to celebrate it.
