Yahoo Finance Video
A drug that literally makes people lose weight. A decade ago, that would have been considered a gimmick if not an outright hoax. Today, it is a reality that has not only changed the weight-loss game for good, but holds the potential to disrupt numerous sectors related to peoples’ physical shape and size — clothing manufacturers and food producers being but two examples. It’s not often that a drug comes along that changes the course of history. Yet that’s exactly what Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and its sister drug Wegovy have done - and why Novo Nordisk (NVO), in its 100th year of operation, is Yahoo Finance’s 2023 Company of the Year. Recent research from Goldman Sachs projects 15 million adults in the US will be on anti-obesity medications by 2030, representing 13% penetration in the US adult population — not including diabetic patients. That’s already translated into some weighty sales numbers for Novo, in turn sending its stock price up close to 50% through 2023, well ahead of the S&P 500’s 20% gain. To be sure, Ozempic is not necessarily the foolproof magic weight-loss elixir that some analysts and investors think and expect it to be. On the contrary, there is competition, knock-offs, and much more research and development ahead to truly make diabetes and by extension obesity a thing of the past.