The maker of Wegovy and Ozempic, Novo Nordisk, has predicted a sharp drop in revenues this year owing to what its boss described as a “painful” push by Donald Trump to lower US weight-loss drug prices, rising competition, and the loss of important patent protections.
Denmark’s Novo, once the poster-child for the growth in weight-loss treatments, said sales this year were likely to fall between 5% and 13%, ending years of double-digit gains, despite the promising launch of its new Wegovy pill in the US. Its share price plummeted 17% on Wednesday, erasing all gains so far this year. In the past year the stock has lost nearly 50% of its value.
Last year, Novo’s total sales grew by 10% to 309bn Danish kroner (£36.6bn) “despite being a challenging year for the company”, according to Mike Doustdar, the chief executive. Profit before tax rose by 3% to 130.5bn kroner.
Doustdar said: “Our 2026 guidance reflects a year of unprecedented pricing pressure,” adding he hoped the “painful” impact would be an “investment for our future”. He hoped to sell higher volumes of obesity and diabetes drugs over the coming years, saying: “We are seeing a volume response to lower prices.”
He pointed to Novo’s agreement with the Trump administration to heavily cut prices, from more than $1,000 a month (£730) to an average price of $350 (£255), and the patent expiry of semaglutide, the main ingredient of its obesity and diabetes drugs, in several countries including India. That would allow generic drugmakers to make cheaper versions of Novo’s drugs. It has also been hit by cheaper compounded versions of its jabs made up by pharmacies, used by many Americans.
Novo will, however, keep patent protection for semaglutide in Europe and Japan until 2033, and in the US until 2032.
Doustdar succeeded Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen in August after Novo lost ground to its US rival Eli Lilly, prompting several profit downgrades and 9,000 job cuts.
Lilly’s Mounjaro jab leads to greater weight loss, clinical studies have shown.
Novo’s outlook contrasts with that of Lilly, which last year became the first pharmaceutical company worldwide to hit a $1tn valuation. On Wednesday, it forecast stronger-than-expected sales and profit growth this year. Shrugging off price cuts in the US, it estimates 2026 sales at $80bn to $83bn, compared with $65bn last year, up by 45%.
Lilly shares rose by 8.2% in pre-market trading.
The daily Wegovy pill, an oral version of Novo’s popular injection that users self-administer once a week, reached 50,000 US prescriptions a week by late January, after launching earlier that month.
The Novo finance chief, Karsten Knudsen, talked of a “fantastic update” of the Wegovy pill, which is priced at between $149 and $299 a month for cash payers, depending on the dose. Amazon’s pharmacy arm is selling the pill at $25 to people with insurance, and at $149 to cash-paying customers.
It is the first GLP-1 tablet on the market, with Lilly expected to launch its own pill in the spring, subject to regulatory approval. Lilly plans to limit higher doses of its pill to $399 a month for repeat cash buyers. The medications work by mimicking the gut hormone GLP-1, making patients feel fuller and limiting appetite.
Derren Nathan, the head of equity research at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “Donald Trump’s crusade on drug prices, patent expiration, and competition all had their part to play. It wasn’t all bad news, with an extremely strong launch for the Wegovy pill, and a reminder of strong clinical progress in the next-generation pipeline at the tail-end of 2025.”
In London, Britain’s second-biggest drugmaker, GSK, said sales growth would slow to between 3% and 5% this year, from 7% growth to £32.7bn last year. In 2025, it initially had the same sales forecast as for this year, but upgraded it twice.
The forecast factors in the company’s deal with the Trump administration to lower the cost of prescription medicines, in return for a tariff-free period of three years.
The company’s new chief executive, Luke Miels, who took over from Emma Walmsley at the start of the year, reiterated its £40bn-plus sales target by 2031.
He said GSK would show “scientific courage” and “be more agile”, saying: “We need our labs to produce more competitive products.” It emerged this week that it is cutting about 350 jobs in the UK and US, including 50 at its main research hub in Stevenage.
GSK reported strong growth in speciality medicines, respiratory, immunology and inflammation treatments, cancer and HIV drugs last year. Oncology led the way with a 43% jump to £2bn. Vaccine sales increased by 2% to £9.2bn, including its shingles, meningitis and RSV jabs.
GSK’s share price dipped initially by 0.6% as trading began in London, before rising, up 2%, to the highest since July 2001 after the merger of Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham.
Sean Conroy, a healthcare analyst at Shore Capital, said GSK was “setting a low bar” with its forecasts, and he believed “this guidance should be beatable”.
