Less than three months into his tenure, Novo Nordisk’s new CEO has undeniably left his mark on the company, launching a sweeping restructuring drive and recently cutting in on Pfizer’s planned acquisition of metabolic biotech Metsera in a bid to restore Novo’s diabetes and obesity supremacy.
Now, speaking to reporters during his first quarterly conference call at the company helm, Maziar Mike Doustdar made clear Wednesday that expanding access to Novo’s medicines—and continuing to unlock novel avenues for sales—will be key as Novo aims to address its recent growth slowdown.
The need for a turnaround at the Danish drug giant was apparent in the company’s third-quarter earnings, which paled in comparison to the recent performance of its chief rival in the diabetes and obesity space, Eli Lilly.
For the three months that ended in September, Novo Nordisk ginned up sales of 74.9 billion Danish kroner ($11.5 billion), up 5% from the sum it generated in 2024’s third quarter but down sequentially from the previous two quarters in 2025, according to a financial workbook the company posted alongside its Nov. 05 earnings announcement.
Looking at the numbers, Novo’s total GLP-1 sales for the period, which primarily include Wegovy in obesity and Ozempic in type 2 diabetes, clocked in at 36.7 billion kroner ($5.6 billion), up around 5% from the amount they generated over the same period last year.
For comparison, Lilly last week reported a stellar Q3 in which combined sales of its GIP/GLP-1 drugs reached $10.1 billion. The sales haul from Lilly's tirzepatide molecule has, for two periods now, eclipsed the world’s previous best-selling medicine, Keytruda.
Novo was first to market with an obesity GLP-1 in Wegovy, which unlocked a wave of public and industry interest in the class’s impressive potential in weight loss and other related conditions. Nevertheless, Novo Nordisk has grappled with supply issues, access hurdles and, more recently, fierce competition from Eli Lilly’s rival GIP/GLP-1 agonists Mounjaro and Zepbound.
Add to that a rampant compounding problem in the U.S., and Novo’s share price has taken a sharp nosedive since around the midpoint of last year.
Now, Novo is narrowing its guidance again for 2025, setting the expectation to deliver revenue growth in the range of 8% to 11%. As of August, Novo had said it expected to chart growth between 8% and 14%. The company is also cutting its operating profit forecast from a previous range of 10% to 16% growth to just 4% to 7%.
On a conference call Wednesday morning, Novo CEO Doustdar attributed the guidance downgrade to expected “lower growth for GLP-1 treatments in diabetes and obesity,” signaling that Novo is far from out of the woods when it comes to its metabolic market struggles.
Throughout the call, Doustdar laid out his thesis for Novo’s return to growth, as well as the bona fides that he feels qualify him to shepherd the Danish drug giant.
Reporters also pressed Doustdar directly—as someone who cut his teeth on the sales side of Novo’s business—on his feelings about losing ground in the market to Eli Lilly’s rival incretin meds Mounjaro and Zepbound.
“I would say that, as a person who has grown up in the commercial part of the organization, you never liked losing market share. So, that goes without saying,” Doustdar said.
“But it is really not about market share when you’re dealing with obesity at this point of time,” he continued. “It is about market access and expanding the market. There are a billion people out there that are suffering from this condition. Unfortunately, us and all of our competitors combined are going back and forth trying to find one or two million patients and share that part of the pie. That is not the way to give access to these innovative medications.”
Doustdar added that he believes semaglutide—the molecule underpinning Wegovy and Ozempic—has “huge potential” to reach “many, many more patients,” stressing that Novo will home in on “market expansion as we go forward.”
Novo Nordisk, like many of its Big Pharma peers, has turned to direct-to-consumer sales channels as a potential avenue to expand access to its drugs. Growing its offering—dubbed NovoCare Pharmacy—in that area will be paramount to meeting increasing “consumer-like behavior” in the market, Doustdar noted.
“I think one of the major issues that we are trying to address is that there are 100 million patients in [the] U.S. today that are suffering from obesity. Fifty-five million of them are insured,” the CEO explained. “Unfortunately, many of these individuals, despite their insurances, are still not getting proper access to medications. That’s also why they go to the cash channels.”
As for Doustdar’s personal capacity to guide Novo back to the top of the diabetes and obesity market, “I would not have taken the job if I didn’t feel confident that we’ll be able to contain and sustain Novo Nordisk leadership in diabetes and obesity,” Doustdar said during Wednesday’s call. “That is what we do,” he added, noting that “it’s a marathon, not a sprint.”
“There is no doubt that right now we are seeing some headwinds—competitor headwinds. But this is also when we are at our best and strongest,” Doustdar stressed.
He pointed not only to the strength and global recognition of semaglutide, but also Novo’s R&D pipeline and the manufacturing infrastructure it’s built out as evidence that the company has laid the groundwork to succeed.
Where the question of GLP-1 access is concerned, pricing conversations are sure to follow, and Doustdar was also quick to confirm that Novo is working with the White House to reach an accord on the costs of its medications in the U.S.
“What I will be able to tell you is that we have been in dialogues with the U.S. government for a long time now,” Doustdar said. “Our aims are quite aligned with one another. We would like to get our medications access to as many Americans as possible. Unfortunately, that’s not the case today. So, those discussions and dialogues are ongoing.”
While the CEO’s comments provided little color on the particulars of the pricing talks, they lent weight to reports earlier this week that Novo and Lilly have engaged in talks with the U.S. government to offer obesity drugs at prices as low as $149 a month in exchange for coverage commitments from federal payers.
While several other drugmakers have been clear about their role in discussions with the Trump administration to lower drug prices—and win some relief from the government’s threatened pharmaceutical import tariffs—Novo has generally been quieter on the U.S. policy front in 2025.
Novo announced that Doustdar would replace the company’s previous CEO, Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen, back in July. At the time, the company was clear that it needed new leadership to navigate “recent market challenges”—alluding to Lilly and the U.S. compounding industry—and to restore the company’s share price.
Since assuming the chief executive’s seat in early August, Doustdar has certainly made a strong impression on the company, kicking off a cost savings drive that will result in some 9,000 layoffs worldwide and last week, making a surprise counteroffer in Pfizer’s attempt to purchase obesity biotech Metsera.
The company will also host an extraordinary general meeting later this month to appoint several new members to its board of directors following a stalemate in leadership discussions with Novo’s chief shareholder, the Novo Nordisk Foundation.
In another new shake-up at the Danish drugmaker, Henrik Wulff, who’s served as Novo’s EVP of chemistry, manufacturing and controls (CMC) and product supply for a decade, will part ways on Jan. 1. Wulff’s role will be taken over by Kasper Bødker Mejlvang, who is currently Novo’s SVP for the Japan region, the company said in a Nov. 5 securities filing.
Mejlvang himself has been with Novo for more than 20 years, primarily working in the areas of supply and CMC, the company said.