Novo Nordisk is in trouble: the reasons why Ozempic is losing millions of dollars in sales
Once the golden child of the weight-loss boom, the Danish drugmaker now faces a painful financial slimming of its own.
Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic once powered the company to Europe’s top spot in market value, fuelled by the craze for GLP-1 drugs that control blood sugar and appetite. Now, as reported by The Guardian, the Danish giant has lost nearly $100 billion in just weeks, after cutting its sales forecast for the second time this year. Shares plunged 30% in their worst week in over 20 years, and the pain isn’t over.
Why is Eli Lilly beating Ozempic?
Eli Lilly’s rival drug Mounjaro – and its weight-loss shot Zepbound – are winning the head-to-head battle, with studies showing better results and patients switching over. Novo is also battling a booming “compounding” trade in the U.S., where pharmacies make copycat semaglutide at lower prices. Even after a partial FDA crackdown, millions are still taking unofficial versions.
It doesn’t help that shortages of the official drug drove people to these alternatives in the first place. Is it possible that Novo underestimated how quickly competitors – and the grey market – would move in once the gold rush began?
Is Trump a factor on weight loss war?
The company is also staring down the barrel of potential tariffs of up to 250% on pharmaceutical imports under Donald Trump’s proposals, plus pressure to match U.S. drug prices to cheaper European levels. That could wipe even more value from a market already undercut by generics and rival brands.
Novo has tried cutting prices and launching a direct-to-consumer platform, NovoCare, but sales growth for its diabetes and weight-loss drugs has slowed sharply – 8% this year compared with 21% last year. That’s a dangerous trend for a company that once couldn’t make Ozempic fast enough.
The appetite for weight-loss drugs is clearly still there – but for now, it’s other companies that are feeding off it.
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