Novo Nordisk's U.S.-traded shares fell about 6% on Tuesday after the Danish drugmaker released its earnings and guidance. Despite raising its full-year profit and sales outlook for 2026, investors were disappointed by the performance of its newly launched pill version of the Wegovy weight-loss drug. The company now expects adjusted sales and operating profit to be in a range of down 6% to flat at constant exchange rates, an improvement from its previous forecast of a 4% to 12% decline. This upward revision was driven by higher expectations for GLP-1 product sales.
The Wegovy pill generated DKK 3.22 billion ($497 million) in sales for the second quarter, which was slightly below the DKK 3.27 billion ($518 million) analysts had anticipated. This miss, though narrow, dampened investor excitement, with Jefferies analysts pointing to potential pricing pressure from deep discounts in the U.S. Jared Holz, a Mizuho Securities healthcare sector specialist, noted that the stock's decline was due to the Wegovy pill not exceeding models, even though the overall trajectory showed improvement from earlier in the year.
The injectable version of Wegovy, however, performed better, exceeding consensus at $3 billion, while the pill missed by 2%. BMO Capital Markets attributed the pill's decline to de-stocking, as reportedly communicated by Novo Nordisk. Analysts like Markus Manns from Union Investment highlighted that the key concern for investors will be whether Novo can maintain its leadership in the oral obesity market, especially with Eli Lilly increasing its marketing efforts in the third quarter. The share decline was also influenced by a trial setback for Novo's next-generation obesity drug, CagriSema, and short-term investor positioning, according to Barclays.
