CEO says it’ll worsen earlier than it will get higher
Simply as Novo Nordisk confirmed indicators of a restoration, one other chilly bathe hit buyers because the drugmaker shock pre-released its 2026 forecast late Tuesday, sending shares tumbling.
Novo Nordisk’s inventory plummeted 17% in Copenhagen early Wednesday, monitoring losses seen in its American depositary shares on Tuesday and greater than wiping out good points seen to date this yr.
“Folks ought to anticipate that it goes down earlier than it comes again up,” CEO Mike Doustdar informed CNBC’s “Early Version Europe” on Wednesday, highlighting the headwinds of considerably decrease U.S. pricing on its best-selling weight reduction drug Wegovy.
“We didn’t go into the main points of the magnitude of that – with the steerage we’re giving that vary.”
It follows Novo’s steerage for 2026 gross sales and working revenue each declining between 5% and 13%, far worse than analysts had anticipated.
Barclays analysts mentioned some would possibly counsel the information to be a “kitchen sink” that might be overwhelmed, “although we word the identical was mentioned final yr, and this proved to not be the case.”
In July final yr, Novo slashed steerage for 2025, citing a difficult U.S. market, resulting in shares to crash 23% on the day.
‘U-shaped restoration’
“We’re creating affordability for the sufferers, tens of millions of sufferers which might be proper now in want of GLP-1 merchandise, however merely couldn’t afford it. To do this brief time period, it’s a must to take a headwind. However after all, there is a very lengthy tailwind for years to come back,” Doustdar informed CNBC.
The corporate has flagged challenges round pricing in its greatest market, the U.S., because of each competitors from compounding pharmacies that promote cheaper knockoff variations of semaglutide – the energetic ingredient in Wegovy and Ozempic – in addition to from chief rival U.S.-based Eli Lilly.
However optimism grew early this yr because the launch of the Wegovy tablet within the U.S. went higher than even Novo had anticipated. “We knew it will be the very best when it comes to efficacy of 16.6% we had anticipated it to do effectively, however we didn’t assume that after 4 weeks of introduction, we may have 170,000 individuals on the tablet,” mentioned Doustdar.
“Regardless of how effectively it does within the preliminary interval, the value hit on the prevailing enterprise trumps, mainly, the nice tablet launch that we have had.”
Whereas Novo has labored to handle expectations going into its full-year outcomes, the place it additionally introduced steerage for the yr to come back, the market didn’t see this coming.
“The query turns into if the restoration from right here, [will be] a Nike swoosh or U-shaped restoration,” famous HSBC’s Rajesh Kumar.
An organization in disaster?
Final yr was a historic one for Novo in additional methods than one.
Shares fell practically 50% in 2025, marking the corporate’s worst yr on report. The corporate appointed its first non-Danish CEO in addition to naming a former CEO, Lars Rebien Sørensen, as chair of the board in what has been described as an unprecedented energy seize. That place added to his current duties, which embrace serving as chair of Novo’s controlling shareholder, Novo Nordisk Basis.
Novo additionally inked a landmark cope with U.S. President Donald Trump to decrease costs on its blockbuster medicine on Medicare and Medicaid and provide them on to shoppers at a reduction on an internet site the Trump administration is launching referred to as TrumpRx.gov.
The brand new Wegovy tablet beginning dose is marketed at solely $149, a fraction of what Novo bought the injectable model for less than a yr in the past. Patent expiries in some ex-U.S. markets in 2026 will even hit gross sales.
Moreover, Novo’s U.S. chief David Moore, who led the launch of the tablet, is leaving the corporate for private causes, Novo mentioned. He’s changed by Jamie Miller, previously with U.S. well being insurer UnitedHealth Group.
When requested on Wednesday if Novo Nordisk was in disaster, Doustdar decisively answered “no.”
“Whereas we acknowledge 2025 introduced important challenges affecting our efficiency and share worth, these adversaries have additionally made us extra resilient,” he mentioned on a name with journalists.
