Wegovy maker Novo Nordisk warns of slower profits as rivals bite

The Danish-maker of Wegovy and Ozempic has warned that its full-year gross sales and earnings is not going to develop as shortly as anticipated as extra “knock-off” weight-loss medicine emerge.Novo Nordisk’s share worth tumbled by greater than 20% because it reduce its outlook and named a brand new chief government to interchange Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen, whose shock exit was introduced in Could.Maziar Mike Doustdar, at the moment vice chairman of Novo Nordisk’s worldwide enterprise, will take over on 7 August. In addition to slower-than-forecast development for Wegovy within the US weight problems market, Novo Nordisk additionally mentioned that gross sales of Ozempic to People with diabetes can be decrease.Novo Nordisk has seen its market worth tumble as different weight-loss remedies have come onto the market.In its buying and selling replace, Novo Nordisk claimed that since Could extra “unsafe and illegal” medicine have been launched. The corporate mentioned it “is pursuing a number of methods, together with litigation, to guard sufferers from knock-off ‘semaglutide’ medicine”.Semaglutide injections are used to deal with diabetes however, lately, have develop into wildly widespread with folks seeking to drop some weight, particularly after the enforced lockdowns of Covid. Whereas Novo Nordisk blamed rival medicine and its personal tepid enlargement for downgrades to gross sales and revenue development, some analysts mentioned the corporate had been too sluggish to pursue the marketplace for folks keen to pay for its weight-loss remedies. Markus Manns, a portfolio supervisor at Union Funding, which is a shareholder in Novo Nordisk, mentioned that its “issues are a lot deeper” than Wegovy within the US and lengthen to the worldwide market.”Novo has underestimated the self-pay market in weight problems and only recently began to concentrate on this vital affected person phase,” he mentioned.Mr Manns additionally described the cuts to Novo’s development outlook as “a shocker”. Full-year revenue is now anticipated to broaden by 10% and 16%, down from a rise of between 16% and 24% predicted in Could.Gross sales are predicted to extend by between 8% and 14%. In Could, Novo forecast development of between 13% and 21%.Benjamin Jackson, an analyst at Jeffries, questioned why Novo Nordisk has determined to nominate an inner candidate to interchange Mr Jørgensen.Mr Doustdar first joined Novo Nordisk in 1992. The corporate mentioned that he had been appointed “as the results of a complete course of that included exterior and inner candidates”.However Mr Jackson mentioned: “We’re shocked by the appointment of Mike Doustdar as chief government with suggestions suggesting an exterior candidate might have been most well-liked.”