Novo reports first Ozempic sales drop in greater China region

By Andrew Silver

SHANGHAI, Feb 5 (Reuters) – Sales of Novo Nordisk’s blockbuster diabetes drug Ozempic in the greater China region fell for the first time last year, as it grapples with competition from rivals.

The sales drop underscores a bleak outlook from the Danish diabetes drug giant which shocked the market this week by flagging a potential earnings drop, ending years of double-digit gains, due to “unprecedented” price pressures.

Sales of Ozempic injector pens in mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong – Novo’s largest market after the U.S. – slipped 7% to about 5.4 billion Danish crowns ($853 million) in 2025.

Ozempic first won approval from China in 2021 and had until last year only had sales gains there, the company’s annual reports show.

But China has since approved similar drugs including Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro, Innovent Biologics’ mazdutide and Guangzhou Innogen’s efsubaglutide alfa.

The Innogen and Lilly medicines were added to China’s state-run health insurance scheme last month for patients with type 2 diabetes, joining Ozempic.

Another Chinese drugmaker, Sciwind Biosciences, also said last month that its type 2 diabetes treatment Xianyida has been approved for use in the country.

“We have a very strong market position with Ozempic, still low penetration, and I would say competition is more entering at this point in time,” Novo Chief Financial Officer Karsten Munk Knudsen told Reuters in an interview this week.

The greater China region accounted for 14% of all 2025 sales in its international operations that exclude the U.S. market, according to a separate investor presentation.

($1 = 6.3339 Danish crowns)

(Reporting by Andrew Silver in Shanghai; Additional reporting by Maggie Fick in London; Editing by Miyoung Kim and Edwina Gibbs)