Novo Nordisk stock plummets 12.4% after weight-loss pill Ozempic fails Alzheimer’s trials — All you need to know

According to Bloomberg, shares of Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk experienced a record decline of 12.4 percent on November 24. This is the lowest level since July 2021, after the company’s popular weight-loss pill Ozempic failed in Alzheimer’s treatment trials.

Novo Nordisk added that it has halted a planned one-year extension for a pair of studies testing the drug’s effectiveness in slowing the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.

Before the results, Morgan Stanley analysts estimated that the two trials involving 3,500 participants with mild Alzheimer’s disease had a 75% chance of failure.

Jared Holz, a healthcare strategist at Mizuho, ​​wrote in a note that shares didn’t even show promising results as Novo fell: “There were rumors that the trial may have failed entirely but still showed differentiation in certain patient populations.”

The news is a major success for Novo, which gives new CEO Mike Doustdar hope for a revival and a “long-term” effort to treat Alzheimer’s disease. The report stated that the company lost its top spot in the obesity and weight loss market to US-based Eli Lilly and has not regained this position since then.

Meanwhile, shares of rival Eli Lilly also fell before U.S. stock markets opened; Biogen Inc., which develops different Alzheimer’s drugs. It increased by 6.7%.

Ozempic failed treatment trials for Alzheimer’s disease

The company said on Nov. 24 that a cognitive assessment of patients in the Ozempic study showed they did not see a slowdown in the progression of Alzheimer’s, according to the report.

Speaking to Bloomberg about the prospects despite acknowledging failure, Per Hansen, investment economist at Nordnet AB, described the trials as a “lottery ticket”, while BMO Capital Markets analyst Evan Seigermann said the possibility was “transformative” even if there was a slim chance of success.

“This was a lottery ticket that could have been of great value. Investors had not given it any real value. Still, there was hope,” Hansen said.

“Being able to slow down the memory-robbing disease could be transformative,” noted Seigermann.

Ozempic, which mimics the gut hormone GLP-1, has already proven itself in preventing heart attacks, strokes and a range of health problems linked to obesity, including liver disease. While the drug won’t cure Alzheimer’s, it may have a better chance of preventing it, analysts told Bloomberg.

Ivan Koychev, associate professor of neuropsychiatry at Imperial College London, told the publication: “This is a recurring theme in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. When the pathology is advanced, preventing further biochemical decline may not be sufficient to repair complex neural networks that have already been impaired.”

However, the market remains a lucrative one for pharmaceutical manufacturers. Developing drugs for Alzheimer’s disease, which causes severe cognitive decline, memory loss and personality changes, is notoriously difficult, but the potential is significant.

Success in developing a treatment could bring Novo as much as $5 billion in extra annual revenue, according to Morgan Stanley analysts.

Novo Nordisk faces tough competition from Eli Lilly

Novo faces stiff competition from Lilly, whose rival drugs have eclipsed its leading position in the obesity market. It was stated that the value of the Danish drug manufacturer fell by more than half in 2025 as investors were concerned about its long-term competitiveness.

CEO Doustdar took office in August and laid off 11% of the workforce and shifted his focus to what he called instilling a “performance culture” in Novo.

There were high hopes that evidence that semaglutide (the main ingredient in Novo’s Wegovy and Ozempic) had an effect on dementia could provide a competitive advantage over Eli Lilly’s Zepbound.

Martin Holst Lange, Novo’s Chief Scientific Officer, said in a statement announcing the results: “We felt we had a responsibility to explore the potential of Semaglutide. The treatment resulted in improvement of some physiological measures associated with Alzheimer’s, but this did not translate into slower worsening of the disease.”

(With input from Bloomberg)