Novo’s Ozempic Sequel Gets Publicly Pantsed (-15%)... Tosses Lilly the Keys to Its GLP-1 Kingdom

Comparison is the thief of joy… and for Novo Nordisk it also happens to be the thief of shareholder money…

If you’re one of those unlucky people who’s always being compared to your trophy brother (or sister) every minute of the day growing up… then you might belong in a therapy session with the company that got Meghan Trainor to forget about “all that bass” and turn into a twig (read: Ozempic).

(Source: Hindustan Times)

While you were likely waking up to your monday morning iphone alarm… the Ozepmic-maker was getting jumpscared by a 15% stock crater. And not the cute, buy-the-dip kind. The “lowest level since June 2021” kind.

Story time.

Novo Nordisk had big dreams for its next-gen weight loss combo drug, CagriSema. This was supposed to be the sequel… the true champion of appetite suppression. The “oh you thought Ozempic was good?” moment.

Instead… it ran straight into Eli Lilly and essentially got pantsed in front of the whole school.

In an 84-week trial, patients on 2.4 mg of CagriSema lost 23% of their body weight. Sounds impressive, right? Cool. Except Lilly’s tirzepatide (aka the engine inside Mounjaro and Zepbound) clocked in at 25.5%. And I’m no genius, but when the whole point of the trial is to prove you’re “not worse than the other guy,” coming in lighter on weight loss is not ideal.

(Source: CNBC)

Novo’s Chief Scientific Officer Martin Holst Lange said he was “surprised” by the 25% result. HIe pointed out the trial was open-label, meaning patients knew what they were taking… which can bias things toward the well-known product. Translation: “We didn’t expect them to cook like that.”

Wall Street didn’t care. After the bloodbath, shares are now sitting at a multi-year-low… down nearly 50% in 2025. Meanwhile, Lilly’s stock popped 3% (probably all Novo shareholders who just sold but still wanted some exposure to the skinny pill).

To add even more weight to the situation (pun absolutely intended)… Lilly has guided for roughly 25% sales growth in 2026. Novo, on the other hand just told investors sales and profit growth could slow 5% to 13% next year. Oof.

Jefferies says this setback might push Novo into up to $35 billion of M&A this year. Translation: when in doubt… go shopping and hope you land someone else’s miracle drug. And that’s before we dive into the absurd side quest of battling Hims & Hers, a company that appears to view “being sued” as a marketing expense.

So what’s the takeaway? Well, pretty much that Novo’s big grand unveiling backfired BIGLY… and put Lilly in the GLP-1 driver’s seat on its own.

At the time of publishing this article, Stocks.News doesn’t hold positions in companies mentioned in the article.