A view of the Novo Nordisk logo in the company's office in Bagsvaerd, on the outskirts of Copenhagen, Denmark, March 8, 2024.
Tom Little | Reuters
Novo Nordisk He is banking a new leadership to help claim the crown in the Board of Drugs for Weight.
The Danish drug manufacturer abruptly announced that the long -standing CEO Lars Fruerd Jorge is renouncing, since its injection of obesity is full of land. Eli LillyThe rival treatment, Zepbound. While Eli Lilly entered the market later, he is emerging as the favorite in a space that some analysts believe that more than $ 150 billion could be worth in the early 2030s.
The new top executive of Novo Nordisk will need to help the company close the gap with Eli Lilly, defend against emerging rivals and navigate other challenges. The next CEO will have to head the company's plans to launch a new list of weight loss medications before the key patents to expire, and manage the impact of Medicare medication price negotiations and the planned tariffs of President Donald Trump on pharmaceutical products.
It is not clear who will take Jorgesen's place, but the company said he is considering internal and external candidates.
“While Novo [Nordisk] He took a dominant early advantage in the duopoly of obesity, have given ground at a critical moment in which more competitors are quickly approaching, “said BMO analyst Capital Markets Evan Seigman in a note on Friday, referring to other drug manufacturers to market their own obesity treatments.
Novo Nordisk once had the title of the most valuable company in Europe, with a value of $ 615 billion at its peak, driven by Wegovy's shot and its counterpart of diabetes, Ozempic.
Novo Nordisk's actions have collapsed in the last year as Eli Lilly gains ground in his rival.
But the enthusiasm of the investors has vanished after Eli Lilly obtained a greater proportion of the market and the clinical trial data on the next wave of obesity drugs of Novo Nordisk disappointed investors. Novo Nordisk shares have collapsed more than 50% during the past year, eliminating more than $ 300 billion in market value.
Novo Nordisk's shares have still increased more than 250% since Jorgesen assumed CEO's position in January 2017. But Eli Lilly's shares have won around 800% since that same month, when CEO Dave Ricks took over the company.
The growing pressure also came from the powerful Novo Nordisk Foundation, the Danish drug manufacturer controller. The Foundation recently urged Novo Nordisk's leadership to consider an “accelerated succession of the CEO” and pressed for a greater representation of the Board, according to a statement on Friday.
Novo Nordisk said Friday that he concluded jointly with Jorgensen that it was time to find a new CEO after the request of the Foundation, the recent market challenges and the strong decrease in the price of the company's shares. Jorgesen said he did not see his expulsion coming and that he was only informed of it recently, according to several reports on Friday.
Days before the ad, Novo Nordisk reduced his sales and profits forecast for the first time since the launch of Wegovy four years ago.
Seigerman said that it is still not clear if a new Superior Executive can address the company's challenges.
“Although it could satisfy some that investors promote an CEO transition, without a significant change in the short -term strategy, we continue to see a more difficult path forward,” he said.
The competition rises before drug releases
Novo Nordisk has been yielding market participation to Eli Lilly, despite the fact that Zepbound's dollars still have Wegovy's.
The Diabetes Drug of Zepbound and Eli Lilly, Mounjaro, now constitutes more than half of the United States recipes for the so-called GLP-1, which mimic hormones to buzz the appetite and regulate blood sugar, according to a separate note from Seigerman earlier this month.
That exceeds the combined participation of 46% of Wegovy and Ozempic of Novo Nordisk.
A combined image shows a Zepbound injection pen, the Wogovy Eli Lilly weight loss drug and Wogovy boxes, made by Novo Nordisk.
Hollie Adams | Reuters
The new US recipes of Zepbound exceeded Wegovy's for the first time in early 2024, only a few months after the release of Eli Lilly's drug, Reuters reported at that time. In August, some analysts estimated that Zepbound had captured 40% of the US weight loss market. UU., Hot in Wegovy's heels.
That “market traction clearly demonstrates that doctors and patients prefer Zepbund” about crying full, wrote Bernstein Courtney Breen analyst in a note in early May. Real world data and a face -to -face clinical trial have shown that Zepbound leads to greater weight loss than Wogovy.
Novo Nordisk has also struggled to convince Wall Street that its next -generation weight loss drug pipe can help you maintain its market position, especially after the bad ones lose exclusivity and medication manufacturers can sell cheaper generic alternatives.
For example, Novo Nordisk repeatedly told investors that his Cagrisema shot, which is expected to be launched in 2026, will help people lose 25% or more of their body weight. But the drug that once stopped the week did not meet that forecast in December 2024, sending shares of the company sinking.
The company in April said it requested the approval of an oral version of Semaglutide, the active ingredient in Wegovy and Ozempic. It occurs when drug manufacturers are rushed to develop more convenient weight loss pills, which could represent $ 50 billion in the market in the coming years, according to some estimates of analysts.
But Seigerman, in a separate note in April, said Novo Nordisk does not have a clear strategy for its oral obesity drug portfolio. He said that it is “likely to challenge growth at the end of the decade”, especially when the obesity pill of Eli Lilly impresses investors and centimeters to enter the market.
Unlike oral semaglutida, Eli Lilly's pill is a small molecule drug and not a peptide medication. That means that Eli Lilly's medicine is more easily absorbed in the body and does not require dietary restrictions as the oral semaglutida does, which can be a remarkable advantage for the company.
Seigerman acknowledged that the experimental pill of the small molecule of Novo Nordisk, Amycretina, could be competitive in the long term. But he said that will not happen soon, since the drug is not expected to be launched for several years.
Outside the problems of pipelines, Novo Nordisk and the rest of the pharmaceutical industry are dealing with the Trump administration ambition lower abroad.
Signs of a changing strategy
Novo Nordisk made it clear that his strategy remains unchanged despite the abrupt departure of Jorgensen.
“We have a strong portfolio of products with a lot of potential,” said Friday of Novo Nordisk Board, Helge Lund, in a call with analysts on Friday. “We have an experienced executive team to continue evolving and promoting the company with a long -term perspective.”
But Seigerman said that the decision to exchange CEO seems to “attract attention to pivots in this strategy that may be necessary.”
Investors have already been seeing possible signs of that change, according to Seigerman.
Novo Nordisk has long prioritized peptide -based therapeutics. But the company's recent agreement indicates that “heavier in the oral solutions of small molecules for the obesity market,” said Seigerman.
The company announced last week a license agreement with the American Biotechnology Company Septerna for experimental pills of small molecules for obesity and other heart disease.
But those pills are in early development and those products are years of entering the market, which means that the agreement remains risky.
The same can be said of several of the other recent ties of Novo Nordisk.
For example, Novo Nordisk in March said he had agreed to pay up to $ 2 billion for the rights of an early experimental medication of the Chinese pharmaceutical company United Laboratories International.
The newly acquired medication is a clear potential competitor of the unpatruding of “Triple G” obesity drugs by Eli Lilly because both use a triple approach to promote weight loss and blood sugar regulation. But the reluctative is found in clinical trials in the late stage, which means that it could enter the market years before the Novo Nordisk medication does it.
