Wegovy sales slowdown prompts Novo Nordisk to revise 2025 outlook

DENMARK—Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk has lowered its sales forecast for 2025, marking the first time in four years it has scaled back expectations since launching its breakthrough weight-loss drug, Wegovy.

This adjustment comes after U.S. prescriptions for Wegovy, the company’s flagship obesity treatment, stopped growing earlier this year despite increased supply efforts.

In the first quarter of 2025, Wegovy sales totaled 17.36 billion Danish kroner ( U$2.64 billion) representing  a 13% decline from the previous quarter and fell short of analysts’ expectations of 18.7 billion kroner (US$2.85 billion).

The sales miss and downward revision have raised investor concerns that Novo Nordisk may be losing its dominant position in the competitive obesity drug market to its main rival, Eli Lilly, whose obesity medication Zepbound has surpassed Wegovy in U.S. prescriptions

Wegovy’s rapid sales growth had previously propelled Novo Nordisk to become Europe’s most valuable publicly traded company, with a peak market capitalization of US$615 billion.

However, stagnant prescription numbers in the U.S.-the company’s largest market-since February have contributed to a sharp drop in its market value, which has now halved to about US$310 billion.

Novo Nordisk now expects its 2025 sales growth in local currencies to be between 13% and 21%, down from the earlier forecast of 16% to 24%.

Similarly, operating profit growth is projected to be between 16% and 24%, compared to the previous guidance of 19% to 27%.

Despite the lowered outlook, the company still reported a strong first-quarter operating profit of 38.79 billion kroner (US$5.9 billion), exceeding analyst expectations and marking a 22% increase from the same period last year.

CEO Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen acknowledged the challenges, attributing the reduced full-year outlook to slower-than-expected uptake of branded GLP-1 treatments like Wegovy.

He pointed to the rapid expansion of compounded versions of the drug in the U.S. as a key factor dampening sales growth, as these alternatives compete with the branded product.

However, Novo Nordisk remains optimistic about a recovery as the company expects sales to rebound as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently banned generic compounded versions of Wegovy and its related drug Ozempic, which should reduce competition from unauthorized alternatives.

Additionally, the removal of Eli Lilly’s Zepbound from reimbursement lists by major pharmacy benefit managers like CVS Health may help Wegovy regain market share.

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