Novo's CEO Called Ozempic's Patent Cliff the "Elephant in the Room" Yesterday. Is the Stock Still a Buy?

Every pharmaceutical company dreams of having a pioneering blockbuster drug, i.e., one whose annual sales top $1 billion. But that's not a ticket to permanent, automatic success; case in point: Novo Nordisk (NYSE:NVO). The company rose to fame (after years of relative obscurity) with the semaglutide GLP-1 molecule in the twin blockbusters Ozempic and Wegovy.

Over the past few years, however, the semaglutide siblings have come under competitive fire from numerous directions. As if that weren't enough, at Novo's investor day on Monday, CEO Mike Doustdar highlighted another risk making the company vulnerable -- semaglutide's looming patent cliff. Investors reacted by trading out of Novo's American Depositary Shares (ADSes), resulting in a nearly 8% loss. This was their steepest one-day fall in over six months. But perhaps that has made Novo a bargain buy.

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