Novo’s board bust-up to sharpen drugmaker’s focus on U.S. consumers

Novo Nordisk initially soared on the success of its obesity drug has lost its market lead to U.S. rival Eli Lilly and cheaper copycats. Photographer: Jean-Francois Monier/AFP/Getty Images

LONDON — Boardroom drama at Wegovy-maker Novo Nordisk has laid bare the company’s biggest challenge: how to better tap into America’s mass market for weight-loss drugs.

The Danish drugmaker that initially soared on the success of its obesity drug has lost its market lead to U.S. rival Eli Lilly and cheaper copycats, with pressure on prices from U.S. President Donald Trump and growing direct-to-consumer sales.

On Tuesday, Novo’s top investor, the non-profit Novo Nordisk Foundation, moved to take control of the company’s board. It vowed a sharper focus on the key U.S. market to boost sales growth for Wegovy, and flagged a need to move faster on burgeoning mass-market channels.

The incoming chair, former CEO Lars Rebien Sorensen, said the drugmaker faced a dynamic and more consumer-focused obesity market in the United States, a market that he called “our daily bread.” He criticized the board for being too slow to recognize the shift.

Making GLP-1 drugs “at very large scale at very competitive cost will become a competitive edge,” he said.

Sorensen cited one of the new board nominees, Helena Saxon, as an example of consumer expertise. Saxon sits on the board of fashion retailer H&M and was a board member at Swedish drugmaker Sobi.

Americans turn to consumer sites for weight-loss drugs

An increasing number of Americans are seeking weight-loss drugs like Wegovy not from their doctors or pharmacies, but from online health platforms that make it easy to order the treatments, offer discounts to patients without insurance coverage and provide nutritional guidance.

Markus Manns, portfolio manager at Novo shareholder Union Investment, said the board overhaul would help give Novo more consumer-facing know-how.

“It has been clear... that they had neglected the self-pay and consumer segment and that they need to focus more on this market,” Manns told Reuters.

UBS analysts said the lack of consumer-facing expertise had been a focus of recent conversations with investors as a potential disadvantage in “an increasingly-consumerised U.S. obesity market.”

Morningstar analyst Karen Andersen said the board changes came as Novo tries to “get its footing back” in the United States, the world’s most lucrative market for weight-loss drugs. That could prove critical ahead of Novo’s planned launch of a weight-loss pill, and a more aggressive pricing strategy could put pressure on Lilly, Andersen said.

Finding the consumer

Lilly was first to offer its weight-loss injection Zepbound directly to U.S. consumers through its LillyDirect platform beginning last year and expanded that program this year to stave off competition from compounding pharmacies.

Novo followed this year with its direct-to-consumer platform NovoCare and partnerships, though a high-profile one with telehealth firm Hims & Hers ended in controversy in June.

The challenge for Novo and Lilly is finding a way to get many more eligible patients on their treatments, BMO Capital Markets analyst Evan Seigerman said.

Meeting heightened Wall Street expectations means exploring new commercial models, including encouraging insurance coverage from employers and the Medicare program for older Americans, to increase volumes, he said.

“One of (the ways) is definitely leaning into direct to consumer,” he told Reuters.

Novo Nordisk’s top investor seizes board control in weight-loss drug battle

(Reporting by Bhanvi Satija and Maggie Fick in London; Additional reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen and Stine Jacobsen in Copenhagen; Editing by Adam Jourdan and Jamie Freed)