Novo Nordisk, the Danish pharma pioneer behind Ozempic, is in for a bruising year.
The company’s shares plunged on Wednesday after the drugmaker said that it expected sales to fall this year as it faces stiff competition in weight-loss drugs and lower prices, in part because of a deal agreed with the White House. For Novo, that would mark the first decline in annual sales since 2017, the year before it began selling Ozempic.
Last year, revenue was 309 billion Danish kroner, or about $49 billion, an increase of 10 percent from the previous year, when excluding movements in currency values. That was the slowest pace since 2020. This year, the company said, sales were expected to fall between 5 and 13 percent, a gloomier outlook than expected by analysts.
The sales warning came as the company started selling a pill version of Wegovy, its weight-loss drug, for which it has high hopes. Since sales of the pill began in early January, 170,000 people have tried it, the company said. In an agreement with the White House, a starter dose costs $149.
Mike Doustdar, the chief executive of Novo Nordisk, said that he was encouraged by the signs from the takeup of the daily pill that lower prices would expand access to the company’s drugs, eventually mitigating the financial hit. The Wegovy pill is selling 15 times faster in its first month than the weekly injectable did when it was launched, he said.
“We are super excited about the volume uptake that will come on the back of the investment related to the price decrease,” Mr. Doustdar said in an interview.
Still, Novo is in the throes of a punishing turnaround effort. Last year, Mr. Doustdar’s predecessor was ousted and the company issued a series of severe profit warnings to shareholders and announced thousands of job cuts. Its management and board has also been shaken up: On Wednesday, the company said David Moore, the head of the U.S. operations, where Novo Nordisk makes the majority of its sales, was leaving the company.
Novo’s shares fell more than 15 percent on Wednesday. They have lost about two-thirds of their value from a 2024 peak, when it was the most valuable public company in Europe.
Novo has struggled to fend off competition by Eli Lilly’s weight-loss drugs, including Zepbound, as well as the prevalence of less expensive copycat alternatives. The Danish company has also been put under pressure by President Trump to lower drug prices.
On Wednesday, Eli Lilly said that it expected sales to continue to grow this year as demand soared for its weight-loss drugs. Its shares rose about 9 percent in premarket trading.
There are few signs of those pressures letting up soon. In addition to Eli Lilly, more drugmakers are entering the obesity space, such as Pfizer, which is progressing with a monthly weight-loss drug. The patent on semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy, expires in several markets this year, including India, China and Canada, opening the door for cheaper generics.
On Wednesday, Mr. Doustdar said that he was most eagerly anticipating the expected launch of a higher dose of semaglutide. The highest available dose of Wegovy is 2.4 milligrams, which in trials showed that users could achieve a loss of about 16 percent of their body weight, less than the higher doses of Lilly’s drug.
“We have decided to actually showcase that when you go with 7.2 milligrams instead of 2.4 milligrams of semaglutide, you get to the same level weight loss efficacy as our competition,” he said, “hopefully putting it to rest that one product is more superior in weight loss than the other.”
Eshe Nelson is a Times reporter based in London, covering economics and business news.
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