Shares of Novo Nordisk (NVO 4.67%), the Danish pharmaceuticals company famed for Ozempic and Wegovy weight loss drugs, jumped 5% through 9:55 a.m. ET Monday on a series of positive announcements for its GLP-1 products.
Two of these announcements concern weight loss. One doesn’t.
In a pair of press releases this morning, Novo announced it’s cutting the cash cost for 0.5 mg, 1 mg, and 2 mg doses of Ozempic to $499 per month “for self-paying patients.” And separately, the company says it’s collaborating with GoodRx to sell all dose sizes of both Ozempic and Wegovy to patients for the $499 price.
In both instances, Novo appears to be targeting competition from telehealth providers like Ro and Hims & Hers Health, declaring, “We believe that if even a single patient feels the need to turn to potentially unsafe and unapproved knockoff alternatives [because of price], that’s one too many.”
On top of all that, CNBC reports that Novo’s Wegovy GLP-1 drug has won FDA approval for treatment of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) liver disease in adults.
In a statement, Novo pointed out that Wegovy is now “the first and only GLP-1 treatment approved for MASH,” a disease that affects about 5% of U.S. adults, opening up a new market that (for now) neither Hims & Hers nor archrival Eli Lilly can compete in.
Valued at just 13 times trailing earnings, Novo Nordisk stock was already looking cheap based on its 3.5% dividend yield and 11.3% projected long-term earnings growth rate. While it’s too soon to say how much the MASH indication will add to that growth rate, it will add something.
