The actions of the Wegovy manufacturer, Novo Nordisk, continued to retreat on Wednesday, while analysts warned against persistent competition from generic drugs in the United States. This drop occurs the day after a warning on profits and the appointment of a new CEO, two events that led to a loss of $ 70 billion in the laboratory.
On Tuesday, Novo Nordisk revised down its sales growth forecasts for 2025 and announced the appointment of Maziar Mike Doustdar, an experienced house in the CEO. Its main mission will be to revive group performance on the American market, today the most important for obesity treatments.
The group clarified that the downward revision of its sales prospects was explained by competition from “composed” drugs copied from Wegovy. These products, made to measure from the same active ingredients as brand medicines, have taken short investors.
If Novo claims to intensify his efforts to regain patients who have passed to copied drugs and limit the illegal manufacturing of these compounds, Guggenheim analysts note that the new forecasts for 2025 do not include a drop in the volume of these preparations.
The title ended Tuesday decreased 23 % after falling up to 30 %. On Wednesday, he ceded another 6.3 % at the end.
Novo Nordisk had become the first European market capitalization after the launch of the Wegovy in 2021, but its action has lost two -thirds of its value since its summit last last, against the backdrop of fears that the laboratory does not lose from the field in the race for obesity treatments.
Despite these difficulties, the new CEO, Mike Doustdar, said on Tuesday at a conference call with investors: “We are currently experiencing fantastic growth with Wegovy. »»
“It has become a real problem of credibility,” said Emily Field, analyst at Barclays. “They do not consider the severity of the situation in the same way as the market, and this poses a real concern. »»
Mike Doustdar told investors that one of its priorities would be to act more quickly and improve “commercial execution”, without however specifying new strategic orientation.
He currently directs all the commercial units worldwide, with the exception of the United States, a region which, according to TD Cowen analysts, hitherto represented a “positive point” in the commercial strategy of Novo, likely to support the current platform as the pipeline progresses.
Barclays lowered his recommendation on the title, going from “overcoming” to “equal weighting”. Bank of America also degraded the value, going from “purchase” to “neutral”.
