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By Jules Rimmer

Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly shares drop

The price of weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy are in the crosshairs of the Trump administration.

Makers of weight-loss drugs such as Novo Nordisk were under pressure on Friday after President Donald Trump warned he would be pushing down the cost of Ozempic.

During a press conference in the Oval Office Thursday, President Trump made unplanned remarks about what he refers to as “fat-loss drugs.” A reporter asked him if those drugs could end up costing Americans $150 out of pocket – from a current price of over $1,000 at times – and he agreed and later added they could be “much lower.

The American depositary receipts of Ozempic’s producer, Novo Nordisk (NVO), promptly shed 5% in short order while the shares of their main competitor in the weight-loss drug market, Eli Lilly (LLY) also tumbled almost 5% in sympathy. Eli Lilly manufacturers similar products, Wegovy and Zepbound.

Despite soaring sales of these flagship drugs, pharmaceutical stocks have been under pressure this year as the Trump administration has sought to lower the costs of medical treatment in the U.S., while European names have also suffered from the threat of enhanced tariffs on exports to the U.S. This year the Stoxx Europe Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology index XX:T4570P has fallen 2% compared with the 13% return delivered by the euro Stoxx 50 XX:SX5E benchmark index.

Despite a 9% rally in the past month, for example, Eli Lilly is still only up 6% for the year, underperforming the S&P 500 SPX by 6 percentage points. Novo Nordisk (DK:NOVO.B), which as recently as this summer was the largest company in Europe by market capitalization, has seen its shares plummet 45% so far in 2025.

Trump’s off-the-cuff comments were immediately followed up by the head of Medicare and Medicaid, Mehmet Oz, who was quick to jump in and stress, “we haven’t negotiated those yet”. The price of a month’s supply of Ozempic is approximately $1,000, therefore if Trump follows through on his threat then that represents a 15% hit to Novo Nordisk margins.

Trump made another comment on Ozempic a few weeks ago: “Sometimes it works on people, the ones I’ve seen it hasn’t worked so well. They say to me ‘I’ve lost some weight’, I say ‘you don’t look it to me’,” he said in the Oval Office with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Before it veered off into unscheduled comments, the intention of the press conference was to announce a White House deal with Germany’s pharmaceutical company Merck KGaA (XE:MRK) to reduce the price of fertility treatment in return for a reprieve on tariffs. Other companies such as AstraZeneca (U.K.:AZN) (AZN) and Pfizer (PFE) have negotiated similar deals with the U.S. government.

Read: Trump rolls out his latest deal with a drugmaker. This one stems from his campaign promise to cover all IVF costs.

-Jules Rimmer

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  10-17-25 0605ET
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