{"id":302136,"date":"2025-07-29T20:45:17","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T20:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/302136\/"},"modified":"2025-07-29T20:45:17","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T20:45:17","slug":"novo-nordisk-shares-plunge-after-wegovy-maker-cuts-full-year-guidance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/302136\/","title":{"rendered":"Novo Nordisk shares plunge after Wegovy-maker cuts full-year guidance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Medical bottles and a syringe are seen with the Novo Nordisk logo displayed on a screen in the background.<\/p>\n

Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images<\/p>\n

Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk<\/a> on Tuesday named its new CEO while simultaneously slashing its full-year guidance, citing weaker growth expectations for its blockbuster Wegovy obesity drug in the key U.S. market.<\/p>\n

The drug maker said company veteran Maziar Mike Doustdar would take over as president and CEO following the surprise ousting<\/a> in May of Lars Fruergaard J\u00f8rgensen. The appointment is effective Aug. 7.<\/p>\n

Shares fell as much as 26% before paring losses slightly to close down 23% by 4:30 p.m. London time (11:26 a.m. ET).<\/p>\n

The company said it now expects full-year sales growth of 8% to 14% at constant exchange rates, down from a prior target of 13% to 21%.<\/p>\n

It expects annual operating profit growth of 10% to 16% versus the previously estimated target of 16% to 24%, also at constant exchange rates.<\/p>\n

Novo Nordisk said Tuesday that the lower outlook was driven by weaker second-half U.S. sales growth forecasts for its Wegovy weight loss drug and Ozempic diabetes treatment.<\/p>\n

“For Wegovy\u00a0in the US, the sales outlook reflects the persistent use of compounded GLP-1s, slower-than-expected market expansion and competition,” it added in a statement.<\/p>\n

Stock Chart IconStock chart icon\"hide<\/p>\n

Novo Nordisk.<\/p>\n

It comes after the company previously downgraded its 2025 outlook in May, as it\u00a0reported lower-than-expected<\/a>\u00a0first-quarter\u00a0sales. The company is due to report its full second-quarter sales on Aug. 6.<\/p>\n

Doustdar, who joined Novo Nordisk in 1992, has held several executive functions across Europe and Asia, serving most recently as executive vice president of international operations.<\/p>\n

In a statement accompanying the announcement, Chairman Helge Lund described Mike Doustdar as “the best person to lead Novo Nordisk through its next growth phase.”<\/p>\n

“I come to this role with a sense of urgency, a laser focus on high performance, and a fierce determination for Novo Nordisk to aim higher than it’s ever done, and to deliver to many more patients the innovation they need,” Doustdar added.<\/p>\n

The Copenhagen, Denmark-headquartered pharma giant has been battling softer U.S. Wegovy sales as competition from compounded drug makers ramped up in the wake of a Food and Drug Administration drug shortage ruling.<\/p>\n

Its share price has shed over 42% this year.<\/p>\n

It nevertheless previously said that it expected those pressures to ease in the second half of the year as the availability of copycat drugs was phased out.<\/p>\n

Meantime, the firm has struggled to shake negative sentiment following a series of\u00a0disappointing trial results<\/a>\u00a0for its next-generation obesity drug candidate CagriSema amid increased market competition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Medical bottles and a syringe are seen with the Novo Nordisk logo displayed on a screen in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302137,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4316],"tags":[5189,3085,1830,105,20944,4348,13731,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-302136","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-breaking-news-europe","9":"tag-business-news","10":"tag-earnings","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-health-care-industry","13":"tag-healthcare","14":"tag-novo-nordisk-a-s","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114938480136292185","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}