just the same novo nordisk Despite showing signs of recovery, the drugmaker’s surprise pre-release of its 2026 forecast late on Tuesday brought another round of cold rain to investors and sent stock prices plunging.
Novo Nordisk shares plunged 17% in Copenhagen early Wednesday, tracking losses seen in the company’s American depositary shares on Tuesday and more than wiping out gains seen so far this year.
“People should expect prices to come down before they come back up,” Chief Executive Officer Mike Doosder told CNBC’s “Early Edition Europe” on Wednesday, highlighting the headwind of the sharply reduced U.S. price of its best-selling weight-loss drug WeGoBe.
“We didn’t go into the details of its size, but we’re following the guidance we’re giving on its scope.”
This is in line with Novo’s forecast for 2026 sales and operating profit to both decline 5% to 13%, far worse than analysts expected.
Barclays analysts said that while some may suggest the guide is a “kitchen sink” bashing, “we note that something similar was said last year and it turns out to be untrue.”
Novo lowered its 2025 outlook last July, citing a difficult U.S. market, and its shares fell 23% that day.
“U-shaped recovery”
“We’re creating affordability for patients, the millions of patients who currently need GLP-1 products but simply couldn’t afford it. To make that happen in the short term, we have to have headwinds. But of course there are very long tailwinds for many years to come,” Dusdahl told CNBC.
The company faces pricing challenges in the U.S., its largest market, both from competition from pharmacies selling cheaper knock-offs of semaglutide, the active ingredient in Wegovy and Ozempic, and from its main rival, the U.S.-based U.S. Eli Lilly.
However, optimism grew earlier this year after the launch of Wegovy tablets in the US went better than even Novo expected. “We knew it had the best efficacy at 16.6%, and we expected it to work, but we didn’t expect that four weeks after introduction, 170,000 people would be taking the pill,” Dusdar said.
“No matter how successful you are in the early stages, the cost to your existing business basically outweighs the great new drug launches you’ve had.”
Novo tried to manage expectations in the lead-up to its full-year results and also released guidance for next year, which the market did not see coming.
HSBC’s Rajesh Kumar said: “The question becomes whether the recovery from here will be a sharp rise for Nike or a U-shaped recovery.”
Is your company in crisis?
Last year was a historic year for Novo in many ways.
In 2025, the stock price fell by nearly 50%, making it the worst year in the company’s history. The company has appointed its first non-Danish CEO and appointed former CEO Lars Levien Sørensen as chairman of the board in what has been described as an unprecedented power grab. This role is in addition to his existing duties, including serving as Chairman of Novo Nordisk Foundation, Novo’s controlling shareholder.
Novo also struck a landmark deal with U.S. President Donald Trump to lower the prices of its blockbuster drugs on Medicare and Medicaid and offer them directly to consumers at discounted prices on a website the Trump administration is launching called TrumpRx.gov.
A starting dose of the new Wegovy pill sells for just $149, a fraction of the price Novo sold its injectable version just a year ago. The expiration of patents in some non-U.S. markets in 2026 will also impact sales.
Additionally, Novo announced that David Moore, head of Novo’s U.S. division who led the drug’s launch, is leaving the company for personal reasons. His successor will be Jamie Miller, a former U.S. health insurance company executive. United Health Group.
When asked on Wednesday whether Novo Nordisk was in crisis, Mr. Dusdal firmly answered “no.”
“While we acknowledge that 2025 presented significant challenges that impacted our performance and stock price, those adversaries have made us even more resilient,” he said on a call with reporters.
