Novo Nordisk's CEO, Mike Doustdar, admitted that the company still needs to convince investors about its future prospects, particularly after losing significant market share in the booming obesity treatment sector to rival Eli Lilly. Doustdar's comments came during Novo Nordisk's capital markets day, where the Danish drugmaker aimed to reassure shareholders but instead saw its stock plunge as much as 9%.
Despite the negative market reaction, Novo Nordisk presented ambitious targets, including plans to launch more than five blockbuster drugs by 2030 and generate over $23 billion in new sales from its pipeline by 2035. The company also detailed its strategy to navigate the looming patent expirations for its key drugs semaglutide (Wegovy and Ozempic) in the early 2030s. This guidance, however, was perceived by some analysts, like Markus Manns from Union Investment, as merely reasonable given anticipated pressures from biosimilars and increased competition.
The decline in investor confidence stems from Novo Nordisk's struggle to maintain its dominant position, with its shares having tumbled more than 70% from their record highs since the 2021 launch of Wegovy. Eli Lilly's competing drug, Zepbound, is projected to outsell Wegovy by over $7 billion this year. Novo also faces questions regarding its pricing power for next-generation drugs and its M&A strategy, although executives indicated a willingness to pursue larger acquisitions to bolster its pipeline, especially in areas like immune-mediated diseases, pain, and addiction. The company has also initiated cost-cutting measures, including 13,000 staff departures, and is accelerating its oral obesity therapy portfolio, aiming for five oral assets in clinical trials by year-end and tenfold manufacturing scale-up to supply 15 million patients with oral obesity therapies by 2030.
Novo Nordisk also highlighted new data for its next-generation obesity injectable, CagriSema, showing a 12.4% average weight loss in diabetes patients, which it presented as superior to a lower dose of Eli Lilly's Tirzepatide (9.1% weight loss). The company targets an early-2027 launch for CagriSema and plans to introduce high-dose CagriSema and standalone cagrilintide in 2028, followed by zenagamtide. Despite these efforts and a stated goal to reach over 60 million patients globally by 2030, the market's initial response indicated lingering skepticism regarding Novo Nordisk's ability to effectively compete and drive robust growth in the coming years.
