Ozempic and Wegovy Turn Drugmaker Into Europe’s Heavyweight

Novo Nordisk, the maker of “miracle” weight-loss drugs Wegovy and Ozempic, is now Europe’s most valuable company, surpassing Louis Vuitton.

The Danish pharmaceutical company’s shares opened Tuesday with a market capitalization of $430 billion, according to Yahoo Finance. Novo Nordisk closed out Monday with a stock market valuation of $428 billion, the BBC reported.

Louis Vuitton, Moët & Chandon and Hennessy, or LVMH, had a market capitalization of $382 billion as of Tuesday morning. In April, the French luxury goods company became the first European firm to have a market valuation of $500 billion.

And the drug-maker isn't just beating out luxury brands. Its valuation far surpasses the gross domestic product of its own home country: Denmark’s gross domestic product is projected to reach $405 billion by the end of 2023, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Driven by the explosive popularity of its weight-loss drugs, Novo Nordisk saw a 43% jump in net profits in the first half of 2023, compared with a year earlier, the company reported in August. It plans to restrict sales of Wegovy through the rest of 2023 "to safeguard continuity of care," Novo said last month, after reporting a whopping 537% increase in the drug’s sales over the past year.

Wegovy, which was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in June 2021, works by tricking people’s “appetite hormones” into signaling that they’re full. Ozempic, a once-weekly injectable medication designed to help adults with type 2 diabetes manage their blood sugar, similarly became a favorite among celebrities and influencers before Novo Nordisk sought approval for Wegovy to be used for weight loss.

Clinical trials have found, however, that people often gain back the weight they lost after stopping the drugs.

Recent studies have shown that Wegovy also can reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes.