Novo Nordisk just lost its title of Europe’s most valuable company to German software giant SAP
The Danish pharma company’s stock has shed a lot of its gains in the last year.
Novo Nordisk, the Danish company that developed GLP-1 receptor agonists Ozempic and Wegovy, saw a meteoric ascent after 2021 as these therapies hit the mainstream and kickstarted the weight-loss drug revolution.
But, since peaking last summer, Novo’s shares have slimmed down consistently, and now they’ve slumped another ~2% in Monday trading.
Weighed down
The latest trial results for CagriSema, Novo’s experimental weight-loss drug, disappointed investors. In a study released earlier this month, patients without Type 2 diabetes on CagriSema reduced their weight by 22.7%, down from the previous 25% forecast — and patients with Type 2 diabetes lost only 15.7% of their weight.
Furthermore, the company also announced that it was spending up to $2 billion to license a Chinese-made weight-loss drug that could potentially rival Ozempic, as reported by Barron’s on Monday morning.
Novo Nordisk’s decline means that the title of Europe’s most valuable company has just this morning passed to German software giant SAP, which now boasts a market cap of some $339 billion, having excited investors about the potential of its AI-driven cloud data business.
As European stock markets enjoy a rare bit of outperformance relative to their US counterparts, German equities have been a particular bright spot, with Frankfurt’s Dax index up almost 19% year-to-date.
The stellar performance of the Dax 40 can be largely attributed to just seven companies (Magnificent Sieben, anyone?) — but mostly SAP, which accounts for almost 40% of the index’s gains.
