Novo Nordisk plans to cut U.S. list prices for its popular weight-loss and diabetes medications, Wegovy and Ozempic, by up to half starting next year.
As part of the changes, both Ozempic and Wegovy will be listed for $675 per month starting January 1, 2027. That’s half the current price for the obesity drug Wegovy and a 34 percent reduction for the diabetes drug Ozempic. The price cuts will also apply to the pill versions of both injections.
Novo Nordisk is lowering the list prices of its drugs for the first time, executives said. This is done specifically to reduce the high out-of-pocket costs for patients enrolled in high-deductible health plans or who pay coinsurance equal to a percentage of the list price.
“We hope that lower prices will lead to better access and affordability,” Jamey Millar, executive vice president for Novo Nordisk’s U.S. business, said in an interview.
The cuts intensify a price war with archrival Eli Lilly in one of the pharmaceutical industry’s fastest-growing and most competitive categories. Millions of patients take the so-called GLP-1 drugs. However, the prices have deterred potential additional customers, either because their health insurance policies do not cover the drugs or the out-of-pocket costs set by their insurers are too high.
The global market for GLP-1 weight loss and diabetes drugs is worth about $72 billion and is expected to grow to about $139 billion by 2030, TD Cowen estimated.
Deutsche Bank Research and JPMorgan downgrade
Deutsche Bank Research has lowered its price target for Novo Nordisk following Cagrisema’s trial failure and downgraded the shares from “Buy” to “Hold”. Deutsche Bank Research has lowered the price target for Novo Nordisk from 400 to 275 Danish kroner after Cagrisema’s study failure and downgraded the shares from “Buy” to “Hold”. Novo Nordisk shares were simultaneously downgraded from “Buy” to “Hold”. “I’m throwing in the towel,” wrote Emmanuel Papadakis on Monday afternoon. Sitting out a year with an almost double-digit decline in sales might have been just acceptable if one thought there was positive momentum for the near future, according to the expert. However, the failure in the REDIFINE-4 study in a direct comparison against Eli Lilly’s weight loss product put a huge dent in this thesis and his optimism for Cagrisema turned out to be a fallacy. That Cagrisema should not be inferior to Eli Lilly’s Zepbound would have been the bare minimum. Now only the strong market launch of Wegovy in pill form remains as a positive argument – not enough to circumvent the fear of an impending patent cliff, says Papadakis.
JPMorgan lowers Novo Nordisk to ‘neutral’ and target to 250 crowns
The US bank JPMorgan has lowered the price target for Novo Nordisk from 350 to 250 Danish kroner after the disappointing Cagrisema comparison study and downgraded the shares from “Overweight” to “Neutral”. The failure reduces the market chances of the weight loss product, wrote Richard Vosser on Monday evening. He cut his estimates for the average by up to 63 percent for 2027 to 2030. As a result, his sales and earnings forecasts for the Danes will fall by up to 16 and 17 percent by 2030. He now sees himself as being under the consensus. The expected profit increases would only be on a par with the industry giants.
Novo Nordisk and United Lab achieve study success with obesity medication
An experimental obesity drug that Novo Nordisk is developing with China’s United Laboratories International Holdings has helped patients lose weight in a mid-stage clinical trial in China. As Novo Nordisk announced, the drug UBT251 led to an average weight loss of up to 19.7 percent in the study.
In the study carried out by United Laboratories subsidiary United Biotechnology, the drug had a safe and well-tolerated profile, the companies said. Some mild to moderate gastrointestinal side effects occurred, which resolved over time.
Patients also showed improvements in key secondary objectives of the trial, including waist circumference, blood sugar and blood pressure, compared to a placebo, they added.
The companies are co-developing the drug under an agreement worth up to $2 billion signed in March last year. The Novo Nordisk share ultimately lost 3.08 percent to 243.65 Danish crowns on its home stock exchange in Denmark on Tuesday.
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Publication of the original study: February 23, 2026 / time not specified in the study / GMT First distribution of the original study: February 23, 2026 / 1:19 p.m. / GMT
FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) / NEW YORK (dpa-AFX) / Dow Jones Newswires
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