- Company name
- Novo Nordisk
- Sector
- Pharmaceuticals
- About
- Novo Nordisk is a Danish drugmaker best known for Ozempic and Wegovy, both built on the same active ingredient, semaglutide. Ozempic, an injection, and its oral cousin Rybelsus treat type 2 diabetes. Wegovy, an injection, and the newer Wegovy pill, an oral tablet the FDA approved in December 2025, treat obesity. Novo also sells insulin, once its main business, and a smaller Rare Disease unit that makes hemophilia and growth-hormone drugs. In 2025, obesity care made up about 27% of sales and diabetes care about 67%, with insulin and rare disease making up the rest. The US is Novo's largest and most profitable market, but US pricing is under new pressure: in November 2025 Novo agreed to cut list prices for Medicare, Medicaid, and a new government website called TrumpRx. In October 2025 Novo agreed to buy Akero Therapeutics for up to $5.2 billion, adding a Phase 3 drug for MASH, a liver disease common in overweight and diabetic patients, to diversify beyond GLP-1 drugs. Novo Nordisk is legally controlled by the Novo Nordisk Foundation, a Danish charity, through Novo Holdings, which owns only about 28% of the shares but about 77% of the votes, via special A shares that carry ten times the voting power of ordinary B shares and can never be sold.
- Thesis
- The market prices Novo at a discount because it fears Novo is losing the obesity-drug race to Eli Lilly. Lilly's tirzepatide beat semaglutide head-to-head. Lilly has already overtaken Novo in ex-US GLP-1 market share, a class of diabetes and weight-loss drugs. Novo's own 2026 guidance still points to sales and profit coming in flat to down for the year, even after two upward revisions. Generic versions of semaglutide are also arriving faster than expected outside the US, with Canada approving a first generic in April 2026. At its September 2026 Capital Markets Day, management guided to 2030 revenue growth only in line with large pharmaceutical peers, not ahead of them. That told the market Novo itself expects no better than average industry growth from here. For the gap to close, two things need to happen together. The Wegovy pill needs to keep growing faster than the older injectable franchise shrinks. CagriSema, Novo's next obesity and diabetes drug, needs to reach the market and take share back from Lilly. CagriSema already beat tirzepatide on weight loss in a head-to-head trial, and an FDA obesity decision is due in the fourth quarter of 2026. New CEO Mike Doustdar is also cutting about 9,000 jobs to fund the turnaround. If the FDA approves CagriSema on schedule and its launch goes well alongside continued Wegovy pill growth, the gap could start closing over the next two to four quarters. Clearer evidence should come by the Q3 2026 report and into 2027. If Lilly keeps taking share faster than Novo can respond, or generic competition spreads to more markets, the discount could persist well beyond 2026. Management's own targets no longer assume a return to Novo's old growth rate.
- Risks
- Eli Lilly's tirzepatide (Zepbound and Mounjaro) beat Novo's semaglutide head-to-head on weight loss and has overtaken Novo in ex-US GLP-1 market share. If Lilly keeps taking share in obesity, Novo's main growth driver keeps shrinking.
Full-year 2026 guidance, even after two upward revisions during the year, still points to adjusted sales and operating profit coming in flat to down 6% at constant exchange rates versus 2025 — a down year even in the best case.
Semaglutide's patent has already lapsed in Canada and China, and Canada approved its first generic version in April 2026. Its main US compound patent does not expire until 2032, but faster-than-expected generic erosion in other large markets would cut into sales sooner than modeled.
The new US pricing deal cuts list prices for Ozempic and Wegovy substantially (to $350 per month via TrumpRx) in exchange for broader Medicare and Medicaid coverage. If volume growth does not offset the lower price per prescription, US revenue growth could disappoint.
Novo is going through a leadership and board overhaul during a critical competitive stretch: a new CEO since August 2025, a new chairman since October 2025, and more than half the board turning over. That much change at once adds execution risk.
Pipeline drugs like CagriSema still need regulatory approval (an FDA obesity decision is due in Q4 2026) before they can offset any further erosion in Ozempic and Wegovy. A delay or rejection would remove a key reason to expect the discount to close.
The Novo Nordisk Foundation controls about 77% of the votes through Novo Holdings, so public shareholders can never gain control of the company or force a takeover, regardless of where the share price trades.
- Recent events
- 2026-09-21: At its Capital Markets Day, Novo set 2030 ambitions for revenue growth in line with a group of large pharmaceutical peers (not above them), broadly stable operating margins, and serving more than 60 million patients globally. The stock fell about 7.7% that day. The same day, Novo reported Phase 3 data showing CagriSema beat Eli Lilly's tirzepatide on weight loss (12.4% vs 9.1%) in people with type 2 diabetes.
2026-08-04: Novo reported Q2 2026 results: adjusted sales of DKK 78,488 million, up 7% at constant exchange rates, and adjusted operating profit of DKK 33,389 million, up 11%. Management raised full-year 2026 guidance to 0% to -6% growth (from -4% to -12%) for both adjusted sales and operating profit, citing stronger Wegovy pill demand.
2025-12-22: The FDA approved the Wegovy pill (oral semaglutide, 25 mg), the first oral GLP-1 medicine approved for weight management. It launched in the US in January 2026.
2025-11-06: Novo agreed to a pricing deal with the Trump administration, cutting Ozempic and Wegovy prices for Medicare, Medicaid, and a new consumer website, TrumpRx.gov, with Medicare set to begin covering obesity drugs for some patients from mid-2026, plus a three-year tariff exemption.
2025-10-21: Amid a board dispute over the pace of change, Chairman Helge Lund agreed to step down. Novo Holdings, controlled by the Novo Nordisk Foundation, said former Novo Nordisk CEO Lars Rebien Sørensen would become the new chairman, with more than half the board set to turn over.
2025-10-09: Novo agreed to acquire Akero Therapeutics for up to $5.2 billion ($54 per share in cash plus a $6 per share contingent payment), adding efruxifermin, a Phase 3 drug for the liver disease MASH. The deal closed in December 2025.
2025-09-10: New CEO Mike Doustdar, a little over a month into the role, announced plans to cut about 9,000 jobs (11% of the workforce) to save roughly DKK 8 billion ($1.3 billion) a year by the end of 2026, and to exit cell-therapy research.