Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on August 1, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 22, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleNovo Nordisk shares fell due to competition and pricing pressures, threatening Wegovy's gains. The company's market cap has significantly decreased.
By Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen
(Reuters) -Shares in Novo Nordisk fell as much as 6% on Friday before recovering some ground later in the session, extending recent losses that threaten to wipe out all the gains since the drugmaker launched its blockbuster weight-loss treatment Wegovy four years ago.
Share price declines across the sector were prompted by U.S. President Donald Trump, who sent letters on Thursday to 17 major pharmaceutical firms, including Novo Nordisk, telling them to cut drug prices in the United States.
Novo Nordisk on Tuesday slashed its forecast for 2025 sales growth due to competition from compounded, or copycat, versions of Wegovy and appointed veteran insider Maziar Mike Doustdar as its new CEO, prompting its shares to fall 23% on the day.
Novo became Europe's most valuable listed firm after launching Wegovy in June 2021, worth some $650 billion in the middle of last year. But its shares have lost more than two-thirds since on concerns the drugmaker is losing ground in the obesity drug race. Its market cap is now $214.5 billion.
"The U.S. healthcare system is complex, but Novo Nordisk will continue to work to find solutions that help people access the medicines they need at affordable prices," Novo said in an emailed statement.
Novo's shares were around 2% lower at 1453 GMT, bringing this week's losses to around 30% - the stock's worst week ever.
The European healthcare index was down around 1% to its lowest since April.
"Trump doesn't have the mandate to tell Novo Nordisk how to price their products in the U.S., but investors are just panicking about the risk of another downgrade," said Nordnet analyst Per Hansen.
The pressure to lower prices adds to Novo's problems in the United States, its biggest market. It faces competition from Eli Lilly and from compounders - custom-made medicines that are based on the same ingredients as branded drugs.
"This is a repricing of the obesity market, it's a repricing of the United States as the world's most attractive drug market, and it's a repricing of the risk from Donald Trump," Hansen said.
(Reporting by Anna Pruchnicka, Elviira Luoma, Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen and Louise Breusch Rasmussen. Editing by Amanda Cooper, Mark Potter and Elaine Hardcastle)
Shares in Novo Nordisk fell due to pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump, who urged pharmaceutical firms to cut drug prices, alongside competition from copycat versions of Wegovy.
Novo Nordisk shares have lost more than two-thirds of their value since reaching their peak, with a significant decline of around 30% in just one week.
Maziar Mike Doustdar has been appointed as the new CEO of Novo Nordisk, following the company's revised sales growth forecast.
The market is undergoing a repricing, influenced by competitive pressures and pricing strategies, which could impact Novo Nordisk's position as a leading player.
Analysts suggest that Trump's pressure to lower prices adds to Novo's challenges in the U.S., its largest market, where it faces stiff competition from companies like Eli Lilly.
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