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For Novo Nordisk, the Danish drugmaker behind Ozempic and Wegovy, the release of its weight-loss pill has been a much-needed triumph.
It was a scientific breakthrough to make an effective tablet form of Wegovy, a weekly injection. It was also a commercial success: More than 1.5 million people, mostly in the United States, have started taking the daily pill since it became available in January.
But the company’s investors have not been dazzled. They are nervously looking further into the future. The key US patent on semaglutide, the active ingredient in Wegovy, will expire early in the next decade.
Just a few years ago, Novo Nordisk was the darling of the healthcare industry. It had pioneered a single drug with benefits that went beyond weight loss to heart, liver and other cardiovascular diseases.
Today Novo’s share price is languishing about 70 per cent below its peak from mid-2024, when it was Europe’s most valuable public company. Investor sentiment is still shaky even after the company said last month that sales and profit would not fall as much as expected this year.
As Mike Doustdar, Novo Nordisk’s chief executive, sees it, investors are missing the big picture. They are too focused on the company’s rivalry with US drugmaker Eli Lilly. They are not appreciating the variety of drugs Novo has available and in development.
“We have more assets than people are giving us credit for,” Doustdar said in an interview with The New York Times. “In a world where people need more treatment medications, it’s not a zero-sum game.”
Doustdar’s desire to bring a new energy to the company, and revive its fortunes, is evident in the intense way he talks about the company’s naysayers. His voice is often loud, even assertive. “We haven’t lost it,” he said.
He took over in August 2025 in uncomfortable circumstances. The previous chief executive had been forced out a few months earlier by the company’s principal shareholder and board member, the Novo Nordisk Foundation. In October, the company’s chair and all the independent board members quit.
The situation became more fraught after Lars Rebien Sorensen, the chair of the foundation’s board, installed himself as chair of the company’s board. The dual role of Sorensen, who is also a former chief executive of Novo, unnerved some shareholders, including Norway’s oil fund.
But drastic change was necessary. Novo began the modern era of weight-loss drugs, known collectively as GLP-1s, but had lost much of its lead to competition from Eli Lilly and cheaper compounding pharmacies. And there had been a steady drumbeat of bad news: profit warnings, forced price cuts, disappointing trials and slowing prescription growth.
In a first, painful step, Novo laid off about 9000 employees, the largest restructuring in Danish corporate history.
One big shift in the past year has been rhetorical. Doustdar speaks frequently about serving customers, not just treating patients. He wants the company to cater to anyone who needs the drugs, without judgment about why. Being able to buy weight-loss drugs with a prescription, but without an in-person doctor’s visit, can support people who suffer from shame and depression because of their weight, he said.
That has raised the question — internally and externally — whether Novo is becoming a cosmetics company. This debate, Doustdar said, is a distraction.
