Ozempic drugmaker just became a victim of its own success

Sydney Morning Herald

5 days ago

It seems counterintuitive, if not implausible, that a company which has revolutionised Western health and promises to potentially eradicate the insidious plague of obesity and address diabetes can be failing to meet its profit and sales expectations.
But that is the dilemma faced by Ozempic and Wegovy maker Novo Nordisk. Its share price is shedding value faster than patients are shedding kilos.
For blame, one need look no further than pirates and the president (Trump, of course).
Novo Nordisk stunned investors on Wednesday by downgrading its earnings expectations, losing nearly a third of its share price at one point during the day's trading – that's $143 billion in value that evaporated in a couple of hours.
For some context: there are plenty of spectacular drugs and treatments that have been developed over recent decades to address many of the world's serious health issues, from cancer to heart disease, but this drug tackles obesity and therefore the myriad other health conditions that stem from being overweight (such as stroke, osteoarthritis, heart disease and even some cancers).
As such, it is a game-changer.
These semaglutide drugs became so popular after their efficacy for weight loss became apparent that in a sense they became victims of their own success.
According to the World Health Organisation, about one billion people around the globe are obese, which means the addressable market for this drug is beyond huge and skewed to Western (and therefore wealthier) economies.
And that market is still growing. The number of people afflicted by obesity has doubled over the past 30 years in adults, and quadrupled in children and adolescents, the WHO says.