Novo Nordisk chief says rebuilding investor confidence is priority as patent clock ticks

What Doustdar told investors

Novo Nordisk A/S CEO Mike Doustdar told Bloomberg TV on Tuesday that the company needs to step up to win back investors who are asking, in his words, "what happens next." He tied that urgency to a looming patent cliff for Novo's biggest products early in the next decade and cautioned, "What we have learned the last couple of years is overpromising and underdelivering loses trust very quickly."

Shares fell on Monday after the company's capital market day was light on specifics about a turnaround plan, and by Tuesday morning in Copenhagen they were down as much as 1.3%.

Pipeline, trials, and deal appetite

Novo laid out plans to have upward of five new blockbusters in place by 2030 and to add at least $23 billion in revenue by 2035 - goals many investors considered already embedded in valuations. Doustdar said the most promising area for buying external assets sits next to obesity, including cardiovascular disease, following a study this year in which its experimental drug ziltivekimab did not lower the likelihood of heart attacks. "We just had a setback in one of our own assets," he said, noting the company is evaluating whether it can fill that gap through deals. In obesity itself, he said there are not many attractive external options.

Doustdar added that investors are looking for data readouts on the company's upcoming wave of therapies, including CagriSema, which he forecast will rank among Novo's strongest launches next year. Even so, expectations are muted after a trial earlier this year found CagriSema delivered less weight loss than Eli Lilly & Co.'s Zepbound.

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Market reaction and the investor view

"Novo remains a show-me story," BMO Capital Markets analyst Evan Seigerman wrote after Monday's presentation, saying investors need clearer visibility into next-generation medicines and potential commercial uptake to "rebuild confidence." Some also question Novo's concentration in obesity as Lilly broadens into other fields like neuroscience. Jefferies analyst Michael Leuchten wrote that the portfolio "remains heavily indexed to the obesity landscape, which we view as risky as semaglutide approaches its loss of exclusivity and competition intensifies."

For everyday investors, the watch list is simple enough: trial readouts for CagriSema and other next-gen programs, any dealmaking to address the ziltivekimab gap, and how Novo navigates patents on the semaglutide franchise. Those will determine whether this shifts from promise to proof.

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