Novo shares slide as drugmaker lays out post-Wegovy growth strategy

Employees look on during the employee event at town hall at Novo in Bagsvaerd, Denmark, Sept. 15, 2026. Mads Claus Rasmussen | Via Reuters

• Novo stock fell after the company laid out plans to revive growth in the anti-obesity market.
• CEO Mike Doustdar laid out plans to diversify the company at the company's Capital Markets Day on Monday.

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Follow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNTwatch nowVIDEO1:0301:03Novo shares sink as weight-loss drug giant unveils 2030 strategySquawk Box Europe

Novo shares fell as much as 7% on Monday after the company laid out new growth ambitions to revive its fortunes in the booming obesity drug market.

The Danish company seeks to convince investors it can compete in an increasingly crowded field it helped pioneer.

The company said it aims to launch more than five drugs with "multi-blockbuster" potential by 2030 and generate more than 150 billion Danish kroner ($23 billion) in pipeline sales by 2035.

It also expects revenue growth between 2026 and 2030 to be in line with industry peers.

The announcement was intended to help convince investors it can compete in an increasingly crowded field it helped pioneer, but the company's Copenhagen-listed shares fell as much as 7% in morning trading. Shares were last seen down 5%.

'The elephant in the room'

CEO Mike Doustdar told investors at the company's Capital Markets Day in London that the "elephant in the room" was that semaglutide, the active ingredient in weight-loss and diabetes medicines Wegovy and Ozempic, will lose key patent exclusivity starting in the early next decade. It expires in 2032 in the U.S., which accounts for more than half of its sales.

This loss of exclusivity "is what's on most people's mind, and rightfully so," Doustdar said.

"We created an incredibly attractive market, and now almost every other single pharma company, big or small, is trying to come and compete with us. We need to be ready for that," he added

Doustdar also laid out plans to diversify the company, adding the company did not "belittle" loss of exclusivity "or the challenges that comes with it related to the price pressure."

"We plan to come on the other side of the LOE as a bigger company than we are today and a much more diversified version of it," he added.

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