CEO Mike Doustdar told CNBC the Danish drugmaker is active in business-development talks and acquisitions, after raising full-year profit guidance and reporting stronger-than-expected first-quarter performance for its Wegovy pill.
He said the strategy would support treatment of hundreds of millions of patients and rejected analyst concerns over Novo's obesity-drug pipeline, highlighting CagriSema and the accelerated amylin candidate zenagamtide.
Novo pioneered GLP-1 weight-loss drugs with Ozempic and Wegovy, but faces intensifying competition as Eli Lilly has overtaken it in weekly GLP-1 shot market share.
As over 160 rival obesity drugs advance, is the era of GLP-1's market dominance already nearing its end?
With its top pipeline drug failing, can Novo Nordisk's deal-making spree outpace Eli Lilly's market dominance?