Tue, 29 Jul 2025

Tue, 29 Jul 2025 Wegovy maker warns of slower profits as rivals bite

The Danish weight loss drug-maker claims "knock-off" treatments are hitting growth.
Novo Nordisk, the Danish company that makes Wegovy and Ozempic, has revised its sales and profit forecasts downwards due to increased competition from "knock-off" weight-loss drugs. The company's share price fell by over 20% after it cut its full-year growth outlook, citing slower-than-expected sales of Wegovy in the US obesity market and lower sales of Ozempic for Americans with diabetes. Novo Nordisk attributed the decline to the emergence of rival weight-loss treatments and its own failure to expand quickly enough into the self-pay market for people seeking to lose weight. Analysts criticized the company's decision to appoint an internal candidate, Maziar Mike Doustdar, as its new CEO, citing concerns that it may have underestimated the importance of the self-pay market and failed to pursue opportunities quickly enough. The company is pursuing multiple strategies, including litigation, to protect patients from unregulated "semaglutide" drugs that are being marketed as a cheaper alternative to Wegovy and Ozempic. Novo Nordisk now expects its full-year profit growth to be 10-16%, down from a previous forecast of 16-24%, while sales growth is expected to be 8-14%.
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