Novo Nordisk stock market plunge drags down Swiss device maker Ypsomed

Novo Nordisk collapses on the stock market, dragging down Ypsomed Keystone-SDA

Danish firm Novo Nordisk, known for its bestsellers Ozempic and Wegovy, treatments for diabetes and weight loss, fell more than 20% on the stock market on Friday, after disappointing results of a new study on another drug.

The Danish pharmaceutical giant’s setbacks also weighed on the share price of Bern-based injection device manufacturer Ypsomed.

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Novo Nordisk, one of Europe’s leading market capitalisations, said that clinical trials showed that overweight people using its drug candidate CagriSema lost an average of 22.7% of their body weight over the 68-week trial, compared with 2.3% for those using a placebo. The result fell short of the 25% expected by Novo Nordisk, causing its share price to drop by more than 22% after the announcement.

According to the firm, the trial involved 3,417 overweight or obese people with one or more comorbidities. However, Novo Nordisk is “encouraged by the results,” said Martin Holst Lange, executive vice president of development, as quoted in a press release.

Thanks to the information gathered during this clinical trial, “we plan to further explore CagriSema’s potential for additional weight loss”, announced the same source. In November, the Danish giant reported a 21% jump in third-quarter net profit to 27.3 billion kroner (CHF3.4 billion), on sales up 22% to 60 billion kroner.

Ypsomed affected

Novo Nordisk had, however, indicated that it was constrained by production capacity, before announcing on Monday that it was investing €1.2 billion in the construction of a new plant in Denmark. In the first nine months of the year, sales of the anti-obesity drug Wegovy, approved in the UK, Denmark, France, Germany, Norway and the US, rose by 42%.

Sales of its other best-seller Ozempic, an injectable diabetes treatment that has become popular for its slimming properties, jumped by 54% over the same period. Novo Nordisk holds 74% of the fast-growing market for weight-loss treatments.

This field remains dominated by Novo Nordisk and the American Eli Lilly, whose Mounjaro, based like Ozempic on the molecule semaglutide. The World Federation Against Obesity predicts that more than half the world’s population will be overweight or obese by 2035, with an economic impact that could exceed $4 billion a year.

Novo Nordisk’s drop also dragged down its supplier Ypsomed, whose share price on the Swiss stock exchange fell by 10.50% at around 2:00 pm on Friday, having already tumbled by more than 20%. The Burgdorf-based manufacturer of injection devices had announced last September that it had won a major contract from the Danish giant for various treatments currently in clinical trials. Financial details and order volumes were not disclosed.

Translated from German by DeepL/jdp

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