New Rival Sends Novo Nordisk Stock Plummeting on U.S. Market

Novo Nordisk shares took a sharp hit Tuesday, dropping 6.9% [ on the Danish Stock Exchange ] as investors reacted to strong clinical trial results from U.S.-based Eli Lilly. The news marked a significant shift in the competition for dominance in the weight-loss drug market.

Eli Lilly’s experimental weight-loss pill, orforglipron, has successfully completed a phase 3 trial. The pill demonstrated weight-loss effects comparable to existing injectable GLP-1 treatments such as Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Lilly’s own Mounjaro—but in a far more convenient oral format.

“This marks the first time a pill of this kind has successfully completed a phase 3 study,” Eli Lilly stated Thursday.

Investor response was swift. Novo Nordisk’s U.S.-listed shares slid 4.5% in premarket trading on Thursday, and the decline continued when European markets reopened Tuesday, pushing the stock to around DKK 390—far below its peak of over DKK 1000 last summer.

While Novo Nordisk is also developing an oral weight-loss medication, it has not yet been approved for that indication, putting the Danish company at risk of being outpaced in a highly competitive and lucrative market.

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