Novo Nordisk, Europe’s most valuable company, is facing a slowdown in sales growth as its honeymoon phase with Ozempic and Wegovy comes to an end. The pharmaceutical giant beat analyst expectations by growing sales by 25% in 2024, but forecasts a slower growth rate of 16-24% in 2025 due to increased competition and supply constraints.
Ozempic and Wegovy drove the company’s sales growth, increasing annual sales by $15 billion over two years. However, Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide patent is set to expire in 2026, putting pressure on the company to find new ways to differentiate itself. The company is now looking at next-generation weight loss drugs that focus on specific subsets of the obese community.
“We have a huge potential market of over 800 million people suffering from obesity,” said CFO Karsten Munk Knudsen. “We’re only serving 2 million today, and there’s a number of sub-segments in the markets that we can cater to.”
Novo Nordisk’s newest GLP-1, CagriSema, is its first big test as leader in the obesity treatment market. The drug is more potent than Ozempic and Wegovy, expanding treatment to heavier patients while potentially reducing treatment times for others.
However, early trial results were disappointing, with shares plummeting after a lack of detail was revealed. Investors were frustrated by the low 57% share of patients who took the full dose throughout the trial period. CFO Knudsen admitted that Novo needed to communicate better after the negative reaction.
Despite this, the CEO highlighted that patients on the trial lost an average of 24 kilograms of body weight from a 107 kg base. The results also show how patients respond differently to more potent weight loss drugs.
Source: https://fortune.com/europe/2025/02/05/cfo-novo-nordisk-prepping-next-generation-weight-loss-drugs