Novo Nordisk's CEO Has a Comeback Plan
The Journal.
The Wall Street Journal
4.2 • 5.8K Ratings
🗓️ 26 May 2026
⏱️ 21 minutes
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| 0:00.0 | Not long ago, it seemed pretty clear who was winning the war of the weight loss drugs. |
| 0:12.6 | Novo Nordisk. |
| 0:13.8 | Nozumik maker Novo Nordisk. |
| 0:16.5 | Novo Nordisk. |
| 0:17.8 | King of the weight loss people. |
| 0:20.2 | Novo Nordisk, the Danish drug maker behind Ozenpik and Wagovi, basically kick-started an entire industry. |
| 0:27.6 | But now, the race looks very different. |
| 0:30.6 | Really bad news for what was the first mover in this space. |
| 0:33.6 | Shares of Novo Nordis plunging by the most on record today. |
| 0:36.6 | The weight loss trailblazer is rapidly seating market share to rival Eli Lilly. |
| 0:42.0 | Novo's biggest rival, the American pharma giant Eli Lilly, has surged ahead. |
| 0:48.2 | Lily's obesity shot, Zepbound, helps patients lose more weight than Novo's Wagovi. |
| 0:53.2 | But Novo has an edge in one critical area, weight loss pills. |
| 0:58.9 | The company released the Wagovi pill earlier this year, |
| 1:02.1 | and it quickly became the biggest drug launch in recent history. |
| 1:06.1 | At the center of all this is Mike Duster, |
| 1:09.0 | the CEO who was hired nine months ago to breathe new life into |
| 1:13.0 | Novo Nordisk. |
| 1:18.2 | Mike Dostar, welcome to the journal. |
| 1:20.6 | It's nice to be here. Thank you very much, yes. |
| 1:23.1 | I reached Mike last week at Novo's headquarters near Copenhagen. |
| 1:27.1 | I wanted to understand how the company that started this whole boom found itself playing catch-up. |
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