Novo Nordisk CEO Abruptly Steps Down Amid Market Shifts, Lilly Pressure, and Oral GLP-1 Scramble

It’s official. Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen, the CEO of Novo Nordisk for the past eight years, is stepping down. And while the press release offers the usual tone of grace and transition, don’t let the polished language fool you. This is a real shake-up at the top of one of the two giants in the GLP-1 space.

The announcement blames market challenges and recent stock performance. But let’s be honest. This is about pressure. Pressure from Eli Lilly. Pressure from investors. And pressure from a fast moving obesity drug race that Novo helped create but now finds itself falling behind in.

Just last quarter, Lilly overtook Novo for the first time in U.S. GLP-1 market share. That is not a fluke. That is a baton pass.

Novo has also taken some hits that it cannot PR its way out of. The phase 3 CagriSema data was supposed to be a next generation answer to Lilly’s Zepbound. Instead, it failed to meaningfully outperform Zepbound’s SURMOUNT-5 data. The result? Investors pulled back. And the stock has not really bounced back since.

Yesterday, Novo announced a deal with Septerna to co-develop oral small molecule therapies. That move looks like a clear response to the pre-launch buzz Lilly has been generating with Orforglipron, the once daily oral GLP-1 pill expected to hit the market next year.

This isn’t just about science. This is about Wall Street. Lilly is executing a full court press. Novo is trying to pivot. And the Novo Nordisk Foundation, which controls the company, just brought back Lars Rebien Sørensen to the board as an observer. Sørensen was CEO for sixteen years and currently chairs the foundation. That is not window dressing. That is the foundation stepping in to steady the ship.

And yet, there is an X factor on the horizon. In the coming months, we are expecting new data on semaglutide in early onset Alzheimer’s. If it works, that could change everything. For patients. For caregivers. And for Novo Nordisk.

Jørgensen said it has been a privilege to lead this company. And it has. Under his watch, sales and share price nearly tripled. But this is a new chapter. And Novo knows it cannot afford to fall behind.

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