Can Novo Nordisk (NVO.US) change its name to “Novo” and start a multi-tier breakthrough to disperse the stock price haze?

The Zhitong Finance App learned that Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk (NVO.US) has launched a comprehensive rebranding centered around the shorter name “Novo”. The company will use “Novo” in its daily brand promotion, but the legal name will remain Novo Nordisk A/S. The original name dates back to the 1989 merger of Novo Terapeutisk Laboratorium with Nordisk Insulinlaboratorium. The name change revolves around the slogan “Lasting Health Starts Now” (Lasting Health Starts Now), with the aim of linking Novo Nordisk research more closely to consumers' daily lives.

Novo Nordisk also launched “The Novo Way” (The Novo Way), a corporate culture based on customer first, competitiveness, clarity, care and integrity. The principles aim to simplify decision-making in an increasingly intense and consumer-driven market. Face-to-consumer channels account for about 30% of injectable GLP-1 sales and 90% of Wegovy tablet sales.

Novo Nordisk is facing intense competition from rival Eli Lilly. According to second-quarter IQVIA data quoted by Eli Lilly, the US pharmaceutical company controlled 60.9% of the obesity market, while Novo Nordisk only accounted for 38.8%. Novo Nordisk has responded by lowering cash prices, expanding direct sales, and refocusing on obesity, diabetes, and related cardiovascular and metabolic diseases.

Its promotion of oral Wegovy was a major highlight. The number of prescriptions in the US exceeded 3 million in five months. Second-quarter sales reached DKK 3.2 billion (approximately US$494 million), but only met expectations.

Meanwhile, Novo Nordisk's next-generation injectable Cagrisema once again lags behind Eli Lilly's ZepBound in recent comparisons. The oral market is also becoming increasingly crowded, and Structure Therapeutics' Aleniglipron lost up to 16% weight in an extended study.

Novo Nordisk's stock price recorded its worst weekly performance since February last week, falling by about 12% so far this year. Previously, the market capitalization fell short in 2025, the worst annual performance since 1984. The stock fell another 0.4% before the market on Monday.

Additionally, Novo Nordisk decided to discontinue two trials involving the experimental cardiovascular drug Ziltivekimab because “the probability of showing meaningful benefits is low.” The move followed the failure of a late-stage trial in July, brought the number of terminated Ziltivekimab trials to three, and undermined Novo & Nord's efforts to build a major growth engine beyond diabetes and obesity.

At the same time, it is worth noting that China recently approved Wegovy for metabolic dysfunction-related steatohepatitis (MASH), making it the first GLP-1 receptor agonist approved for this liver disease in China. On August 27, 2026, China's State Drug Administration officially accepted the marketing application for Novo Nordisk's oral version of Wegovy.

China's head of healthcare research at J.P. Morgan predicts that sales of GLP-1 therapy for weight management in China may reach 30 billion yuan within the next five to seven years, far higher than the current estimate of 3 billion to 4 billion yuan.

Furthermore, Wegovy also achieved encouraging results among children between 6 and 12 years of age. After 68 weeks, 40.4% of treatment participants were no longer classified as obese, and 0% in the placebo group. The data paved the way for simeglutide to be approved as an indication for weight loss in children, and Eli Lilly Zepbound has not yet covered this field.

Prior to this name change, the company had already undergone a broader restructuring under the leadership of CEO Mike Dustadt. He became CEO in August 2025. Novo Nordisk then announced layoffs of about 9,000 employees, accounting for 11% of the total number of employees, with a goal of saving DKK 8 billion a year by the end of 2026.

What do retail traders think of Novo Nordisk? On Stocktwits, Novo Nordisk retail sentiment changed from “bearish” to “bullish” a week ago, and the volume of news was “high.”

One user said, “$NVO from Novo Nodisk to Novo. This will definitely drive the stock price higher. The next brand change will be from Novo to NoGo.”

Another user said, “$NVO isn't a brag, but every month I buy 1000 more shares at this price. That's my confidence. If it's 2024 or 2025, I totally agree with the bearish logic. However, since the launch of oral Wegovy, the data has continued to far exceed expectations, plus two consecutive quarters of upward guidance. It's obvious what the next quarter will look like.”