Novo Nordisk stock gets drilled on pipeline concerns — its CEO sees a main problem

Novo Nordisk ( NVO ) shares are slimming down.

Shares of the Wegovy maker tanked more than 4% on Monday as the company failed to impress Wall Street at its capital markets day. The company came up short by not sharing more specifics on near-term growth targets amid fierce competition in the weight-loss drug market. The company said it's targeting more than $23 billion in pipeline sales by 2035. It has plans to launch more than five potential multi-blockbusters by the end of the decade.

"For decades long, this company operated in what you could argue as a duopoly often," Novo Nordisk CEO Mike Doustdar told investors. "Thanks to us, we created an incredibly attractive market, and now almost every other single pharma company, big or small, is trying to come and compete with us. We need to be ready for that."

Doustdar took over as CEO at Novo Nordisk in August 2025, succeeding longtime leader Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen. He has spent 33 years at Novo Nordisk, rising from an entry-level office clerk in Vienna in 1992 to the corner office.

In 2015, he was promoted to executive vice president of international operations, where he successfully managed the company's entire commercial business footprint outside the US and doubled sales across the division.

Today, Doustdar leads the global healthcare powerhouse as it navigates intense competition in the GLP-1 market, primarily against rival Eli Lilly ( LLY ).

Doustdar said on the Power Players With Brian Sozzi podcast on Yahoo Finance earlier this month that he is focused on improving Wegovy marketing while continuing to build momentum behind its pill form, which fell short of analyst estimates in the most recent quarter.

He is also investing more aggressively in R&D to help overcome future patent expirations in the coming years.

Successfully pulling these things off will be paramount to getting Novo Nordisk's stock back in the good graces of investors worried about the company's future patent expiry cliff and how it will impact the bottom line.

"I would say, first, I would like to see a future after the patent cliff where the majority of semaglutide sold is sold by Novo Nordisk. Today, Novo is the biggest generic insulin maker in the world," Doustdar said. "We don't have a monopoly of good ideas. So we're also looking into partnerships, acquisitions and trying to basically see where else we could compliment all the good things we have on our own."

Brian Sozzi is Yahoo Finance's Executive Editor, host of the ' Power Players With Brian Sozzi' podcast and a member of Yahoo Finance's editorial leadership team. Follow Sozzi on X @BrianSozzi , Instagram , and LinkedIn . Tips on stories? Email brian.sozzi@yahoofinance.com.