Novo Nordisk Spends Big on Monthly Shots While EMA Backs Two New Therapies

Novo Nordisk pays up to EUR 1.17B for monthly-shot tech and gains two EMA nods, but shares stay muted as Lilly leads US GLP-1 market.

Novo Nordisk is attacking its pipeline problem from both ends of the calendar. On one front, the Danish drugmaker has secured a technology that could stretch injection intervals from a week to a month or even a quarter. On another, European regulators have just endorsed two therapies that have nothing to do with obesity. Investors, so far, are unmoved.

Shares in the Copenhagen-based group closed Thursday at EUR 33.94 and were trading at EUR 34.03 on Friday, a muted gain of 0.3% on the day the licensing deal was announced. The stock has shed 23% since the start of the year.

A EUR 1.17 Billion Bet on Fewer Needles

Friday's worldwide licensing agreement with Swedish specialist Nanexa carries a potential total value of up to EUR 1.17 billion. The pact hands Novo exclusive rights to Nanexa's PharmaShell platform across as many as five development programs. The technology applies ultra-thin inorganic coatings to individual drug particles, creating a depot at the injection site that releases the active ingredient in a controlled fashion over weeks.

Nanexa stands to collect up to EUR 615 million in upfront, development and regulatory milestones, with a further EUR 550 million tied to future sales thresholds. The aim is to spare patients with diabetes and obesity the weekly jabs that current peptide medicines require.

Henrik Hallengren Laustsen, an analyst at Jyske Bank, described the transaction as modest relative to Novo's scale and said he expected no major share price reaction. The company is also pursuing oral therapies, and refining injectable treatments remains a central plank of its development strategy as rivals including Eli Lilly and Pfizer work on long-acting formulations of their own.

Two EMA Nods in Two Days

Regulatory news arrived in quick succession. On 17 September, the European Medicines Agency's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use recommended approval of FREHEMGO for the preventive treatment of haemophilia A in adults and children, with a European launch planned from the fourth quarter of 2026. A day later, the same committee backed the growth hormone Sogroya for children with idiopathic short stature. Should the European Commission grant clearance, it would be the first authorized product for that indication in the EU.

Both recommendations support CEO Mike Doustdar's plan to broaden the portfolio beyond existing GLP-1 medicines.

CagriSema Outperforms Tirzepatide in Head-to-Head Study

The pipeline's centerpiece continues to generate data. In the Phase 3 REIMAGINE 5 trial, CagriSema produced 12.4% weight loss after 60 weeks in patients with type 2 diabetes, beating tirzepatide's 9.1%. The combination of cagrilintide and semaglutide was also non-inferior on HbA1c reduction. In the REDEFINE 9 obesity study, participants lost 21% of their body weight after 68 weeks compared with placebo. Novo expects a US Food and Drug Administration decision in the fourth quarter of 2026, and a market launch for CagriSema is pencilled in for early 2027.

Lilly's US Lead and the 2030 Patent Wall

None of this has been enough to lift sentiment. A capital markets day earlier this week was poorly received and weighed on the shares. In the US GLP-1 market, Eli Lilly captured roughly 61% share in the second quarter of 2026, leaving Novo with about 39%. Analysts also flag subdued medium-term growth and the expiry of patents on semaglutide, its revenue engine, after 2030.

Buybacks offer some support. Novo had repurchased its own B shares for more than DKK 9.6 billion since February as of 18 September.