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Claire Yubin Oh & J. Edward Moreno

Novo Nordisk’s slide continues after CEO warns of “unprecedented pricing pressure” as outlook overshadows Q4 results

Novo Nordisk’s shares are tumbling further in premarket trading on Wednesday after CEO Mike Doustdar warned that the Danish pharma giant will face “unprecedented” price pressures in 2026, addressing the company’s annual sales forecast, which showed a decline in revenue.

“Our 2026 guidance reflects a year of unprecedented pricing pressure,” Doustdar said on a call with journalists, adding in an interview with CNBC that people should expect that US pricing “goes down before it comes back up,” as headwinds from lower US Wegovy pricing remain.

On Tuesday, NVO shares fell double digits after it forecast that sales and operating profit for 2026 will both decline by between 5% and 13% — analysts were expecting very modest growth in each.

In its 2025 annual report, released on Wednesday morning, the company detailed the disappointing guidance, citing “lower realised prices, including the MFN (‘Most Favoured Nations’) agreement in the US and the loss of exclusivity for the semaglutide molecule in certain markets in International Operations.” Novo also added that “positive impacts related to US gross-to-net sales adjustments during 2025 are not anticipated to reoccur.”

Across its actual Q4 results, things were a little rosier: sales and diluted EPS figures for Q4 2025 came in at $12.3 billion and $0.94, respectively, slightly beating analyst consensus estimates in both cases by 0.9% and 1.4% (forecasts compiled by Bloomberg).

Meanwhile, Eli Lilly reported quarterly earnings results and posted 2026 guidance on Wednesday that crushed Wall Street estimates. Indeed, though Novo was first to the GLP-1 market, Lilly is proving fierce competition, having surpassed the Danish giant’s sales by Q2 of last year. The Mounjaro maker’s earnings on Wednesday showed that the gap is only getting wider.

Just as Novo launched a new oral GLP-1 for weight loss in January — and early signs show uptake is strong — Lilly also has a weight-loss pill expected to come to market later this year. Novo is facing patent expiry for semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy, starting this year in major markets like Canada, India, and China.

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Luke Kawa

Broadcom soars on Google’s plans for up to $185 billion in capex this year

Google’s capex guidance is Broadcom’s earnings guidance.

The hyperscaler and search giant said its 2026 capex budget would be between $175 billion and $185 billion, 55% higher than Wall Street had anticipated.

Accordingly, shares of the custom chip specialist are soaring in after-hours trading.

Broadcom has enjoyed a halo effect from Google’s capex plans and the success of its Gemini 3 model (trained on TPUs the two companies codesigned) over the past year.

But the custom chip designer had tumbled after its most recent earnings report, with some analysts attributing the decline to the dearth of new customer announcements. But who needs new customers when your current ones are opening their wallets this much?!?

Alphabet beat earnings and revenue expectations

Alphabet beat earnings and revenue expectations

Accordingly, shares of the custom chip specialist are soaring in after-hours trading.

Broadcom has enjoyed a halo effect from Google’s capex plans and the success of its Gemini 3 model (trained on TPUs the two companies codesigned) over the past year.

But the custom chip designer had tumbled after its most recent earnings report, with some analysts attributing the decline to the dearth of new customer announcements. But who needs new customers when your current ones are opening their wallets this much?!?

Luke Kawa
2h
Qualcomm tumbles after releasing gloomy Q2 guidance thanks to memory chip supply crunch

Q1 results beat expectations, but the memory chip crunch looks to be weighing on the forward outlook.

A crowd of visitors at the Qualcomm ( Qualcomm is an...
Tasha Matsumoto
2h
Stocks continue to slide amid tech sell-off

Investors were once again in risk-off mode as tech and crypto continued to fall.

Chicago Bears fans react during the second half of a game against the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium on November 03, 2024 in Glendale, Arizona.
(J. Edward Moreno/Sherwood News)

Novo and Lilly agree prices are falling — and disagree on what comes next

Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly are cutting prices to reach more patients — with sharply different expectations about what that means for sales.

J. Edward Moreno3h
markets
J. Edward Moreno

Ozempic is no longer the most searched for GLP-1 in the US

Ozempic, the popular diabetes drug made by Novo Nordisk, used to be shorthand for an entire class of diabetes and weight-loss medications. Not anymore.

According to Google Trends data, as of January, more people in the US are searching for Eli Lilly’s weight-loss shot, Zepbound, than Ozempic. At the same time, interest in the word “Ozempic” now sits roughly on par with searches for “peptides,” a catchall term for a booming, loosely regulated category of experimental supplements.

The numbers hint at a cultural shift: Ozempic is no longer the only word people reach for when they think about weight-loss drugs. The market — and the vocabulary around it — is fragmenting.

This shift also reflected in sales numbers. For several quarters now, Lilly’s diabetes and weight-loss drugs have outsold Novo’s, and that gap is expected to widen this year.

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