Shares of Novo Nordisk (NYSE: NVO) are on course for their steepest weekly decline since late February, with the stock down 12% over the course of the week.
The selloff began Monday when U.S.-listed ADRs dropped 8% following the company’s Capital Markets Day presentation, with losses extending through Tuesday and Wednesday.
On Wednesday, the stock fell an additional 3%, as investors continued to search for concrete near-term answers on pricing pressure and competition in the obesity and diabetes drug market.
CEO Mike Doustdar told the Financial Times on Wednesday that Novo is open to pursuing a direct NYSE listing rather than continuing through ADRs, though he confirmed there is no active process underway.
Singapore separately granted approval for injectable Wegovy to treat noncirrhotic MASH with moderate-to-advanced fibrosis, expanding on the drug’s existing approval in the country for weight management.
Neither development was sufficient to reverse the negative momentum built up since Novo’s Capital Markets Day, where the company outlined a series of long-term financial targets that stopped short of addressing investors’ most pressing concerns.
Novo stated on Monday that it aims to launch more than five multi-blockbuster medicines by 2030 and generate more than 150 billion kroner, approximately $23 billion, in risk-adjusted pipeline sales by 2035.
Management said 2026 to 2030 revenue should compound in line with large-cap peers, operating margins should stay broadly stable, and oral GLP-1 capacity should rise tenfold so the company can serve more than 60 million patients by 2030.
Investors, however, wanted a nearer-term answer to U.S. price cuts, Eli Lilly’s gains with rival drugs Zepbound and Mounjaro, and the upcoming loss of exclusivity on semaglutide.
On Tuesday, Doustdar told Bloomberg the company still has more work to do to rebuild investor confidence, saying “what we have learned the last couple of years is overpromising and underdelivering loses trust very quickly,” and acknowledging that investors “want to know what happens next.”
Novo also released late-stage trial results for CagriSema, its next weekly weight-loss and diabetes injection, showing that a lower dose produced 12.4% weight loss in type 2 diabetes patients compared with 9.1% for a low dose of Eli Lilly’s tirzepatide, the medicine in Zepbound.
In a separate study of people with overweight or obesity, CagriSema reduced weight by 21% after 16 months versus 2% for placebo, with Novo still targeting an early 2027 launch for the drug.
Traders, however, focused on the timing of that launch and on the fact that the Lilly comparison used a lower dose of the competing drug, limiting enthusiasm for the results.
On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around NVO remained “extremely bullish” over the past 24 hours while message volume was rated “extremely high,” reflecting strong engagement despite the price decline.
One Stocktwits user expressed frustration with the company’s leadership, arguing that Novo must “stop making presentations and deliver results,” while another voiced optimism that the company is being deliberately conservative with its targets and will exceed them.
NVO stock has now fallen 25% year-to-date, with the latest wave of selling underscoring how fragile investor confidence remains after a prolonged period of missed expectations and competitive headwinds.
