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Danish pharma giant Novo Nordisk's shares plunge after sales warning

AFP
AFP - news@thelocal.dk
Danish pharma giant Novo Nordisk's shares plunge after sales warning
Boxes of Ozempic and Wegovy made by Novo Nordisk. File photo: Hollie Adams/Reuters/Ritzau Scanpix
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Shares in the Danish pharmaceuticals group Novo Nordisk nosedived on Wednesday after the maker of Ozempic and Wegovy anti-obesity drugs warned of lower sales this year.

In early trading the stock was down 18 percent at around 302 kroner on the Copenhagen stock exchange.

The decline sheds nearly $32 billion off the market value since Tuesday for Novo Nordisk, one of Europe's biggest companies by capitalisation.

On Tuesday the company said 2025 sales had risen six percent to 309 billion kroner, below the eight to 11 percent gain it had forecast as recently as November.

It also said it expected sales to slide by up to 13 percent this year as prices for the popular GLP-1 drugs Ozempic and Wegovy fall in the key US market.

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"Underlying guidance (a new and welcome initiative for the company) was for sales and operating profit to fall 5-13 percent this year, causing the immediate erasing of much of the shares' strong gains so far in 2026," said Derren Nathan, an analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.

"Donald Trump's crusade on drug prices, patent expiration, and competition all had their part to play," he added.

The company had nonetheless announced reason to cheer in December when the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Wegovy to be administered in pill form for weight loss, instead of injections.

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