Novo Nordisk‘s (NYSE: NVO) shareholders have to be blissful to see 2025 lastly come to an in depth. It was not a superb 12 months for the pharmaceutical large. It encountered a number of setbacks, higher competitors inside its core therapeutic space, and slowing progress for its prime progress drivers, Ozempic and Wegovy.
Fortunately, 2026 may very well be a significantly better 12 months for the Denmark-based drugmaker. Let’s think about two tailwinds that would assist Novo Nordisk all year long.
Regardless of all of the troubles it encountered in 2025, Novo Nordisk additionally secured some vital wins. Notably, the corporate earned label expansions for sure merchandise. Its weight administration medication, Wegovy, is now permitted for metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH). An oral model of the drugs has additionally been permitted for weight reduction. And a higher-dose model of Wegovy can also be below evaluation.
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These are significant additions that ought to increase Wegovy’s gross sales and transfer the needle for the corporate. Take Wegovy’s MASH indication. Till it acquired approval from the U.S. Meals and Drug Administration (FDA), there was just one permitted medication for MASH: Madrigal Prescribed drugs‘ (NASDAQ: MDGL) Rezdiffra, which earned approval in 2024. Within the third quarter of 2025, Rezdiffra generated $287.3 million — giving it an annual run charge properly into blockbuster territory. But Wegovy proved corresponding to Rezdiffra in scientific trials.
Moreover, Novo Nordisk is a far bigger firm with extra funds and a bigger gross sales and advertising and marketing finances in comparison with smaller friends corresponding to Madrigal Prescribed drugs. And MASH is a severely underserved space; within the U.S., it impacts hundreds of thousands of sufferers. All these elements recommend that Wegovy has the potential to generate gross sales exceeding $1 billion for this indication. It might not attain its peak in 2026, however it would make progress.
We are able to say the identical in regards to the medication’s oral formulation, which turned the primary of its type to obtain approval for weight reduction. Right here too, there’s a huge market, as many sufferers will go for every day tablets over weekly injections. Novo Nordisk’s top-line progress may enhance barely subsequent 12 months on account of these developments.
Novo Nordisk is trying to regain some floor within the GLP-1 market, after dropping market share this 12 months to Eli Lilly. The latest approvals may assist, however Novo Nordisk can even financial institution on ongoing pipeline candidates to finally transfer the needle.
One of many extra promising merchandise the corporate is engaged on is named amycretin. This candidate’s attraction lies in its skill to imitate the actions of two intestine hormones, GLP-1 and amylin, each of which play a number of roles in regulating satiety and blood sugar ranges. The investigational weight reduction and diabetes medication is presently in part 3 research, for each subcutaneous and oral formulations. We should always see interim information someday subsequent 12 months.
A number of different candidates in Novo Nordisk’s arsenal may make some noise in 2026. That features UBT251, an investigational triple agonist — a drugs that mimics the motion of three intestine hormones. Whereas it is nonetheless early in its improvement, robust progress right here (and elsewhere) may jolt Novo Nordisk’s inventory.
For my part, the worst is within the rearview mirror for Novo Nordisk. After poor monetary outcomes (by its lofty requirements), scientific setbacks, and authorities drug-price negotiations, issues may lastly begin to break its means. Within the subsequent few years, we are able to count on Wegovy and Ozempic to nonetheless generate robust gross sales whereas the Denmark-based drugmaker secures no less than a few brand-new launches, together with that of CagriSema, a GLP-1 medication for which it not too long ago requested approval.
In the meantime, Novo Nordisk’s shares stay fairly valued — buying and selling at round 14 instances ahead earnings in comparison with the typical of 18.4 for the healthcare sector. That makes the inventory price shopping for at present.
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