Episode summary
Novo Halves Ozempic Price to $499 a Month For Those Paying Cash | Bloomberg Intelligence
Bloomberg Intelligence
· · 20 min · Hosts: Paul Sweeney, Lisa Mateo · Guests: Madison Muller, Niraj Patel, Francis Duflot, Mandeep Singh
Summary
Novo Nordisk got two boosts: the host and a guest said Wegovy won U.S. approval for treating MASH, a serious liver disease, and that should help the company argue for broader insurance coverage and regain some ground against Eli Lilly’s Zepbound. The guest said the approval matters because the drugs have already shown benefits beyond weight loss, and having an approved liver indication gives Novo another way to defend the product mix after market-share pressure and recent management turmoil. The same discussion covered Novo cutting Ozempic’s cash-pay price to $499 a month, matching the level it had already set for Wegovy, though the guest said the move may not expand access much because Ozempic is usually covered by insurance.
The program then turned to software dealmaking, where an analyst said Thoma Bravo’s reported talks to buy Dayforce fit a broader consolidation trend in human-capital-management software. He said Dayforce’s growth has slowed sharply from 22% sales growth in 2021-2022 to about 11% expected this year and next, while valuation has fallen to an all-time low. He pointed to macro weakness in labor growth and product convergence across HR software as key pressures, while noting that HCM is less exposed to AI disruption than some other application-software categories.
Air Canada was the next focus, with the analyst saying the carrier’s flight-attendant strike could hit quarterly revenue by about $200 million, or roughly 3% of expected revenue, after almost 80% of flights and seats were canceled over the weekend. The final segment discussed OpenAI staff planning to sell about $6 billion in shares, with the analyst arguing that private-company liquidity events are becoming more common as talent wars intensify and that OpenAI could pursue an IPO within the next two years, though not imminently because it is still burning cash.
Key takeaways
- Novo’s Wegovy approval for MASH could strengthen insurance coverage arguments and help it compete more effectively with Eli Lilly’s Zepbound, the guest said.
- Novo’s new $499 cash price for Ozempic mirrors Wegovy’s cash-pay pricing, but the guest said the move may not materially widen access because Ozempic is usually insured.
- The analyst said Dayforce’s growth has slowed to about 11% from 22% in 2021-2022, helping explain reported takeover interest from Thoma Bravo.
- Air Canada’s strike-related cancellations could cost about $200 million this quarter, or roughly 3% of expected revenue, according to the analyst.
- The analyst said OpenAI’s employee share sale reflects intensifying talent competition and that an IPO could happen within two years, though not soon.
Notable quotes
“they are usually on it. It's a, you know, a type two diabetes treatment and usually that's covered by insurance”
“this is not something we see very often. So at their revenue base, I mean they are clearly the most coveted and the most uh uh talked about name”
How the episode opens
Bloomberg Audio Studios podcasts radio news. You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence Podcast. Catch us live weekdays at 10 a.m.
Eastern on Apple CarPlay and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business App. Listen on demand wherever you get your podcasts or watch us live on YouTube. We had some FDA approvals.
They're pushing gains in some far pharmaceutical companies, specifically Novo Nordisk. So, here to break that down and a whole lot more news that's coming out about Novo is Madison Muller. She's Bloomberg Health reporter.
But the big news, so the weight loss drug we go got this US approval to for to treat a form of liver disease. So, what does this mean for the company? Yeah.
So, on Friday afternoon, late on Friday, um Nova Nortis got approval for WGO, which is its weight loss drug to treat um a liver disease called MASH. And this sort of is a we've seen over the last couple of years so many studies come out to show the potential health benefits of these weight loss drugs beyond just you know the reducing the number on the scale and we knew from studies that there was some benefit to the liver um from taking these drugs and so NOVA was able to notch an approval for that which helps one with insurance coverage uh WGO and then Eli Liy's drug Zepbound are still not super widely covered by insurance companies um for weight loss But having some of these other health benefits shown and proven in studies helps them convince insurers that they are worth covering. Um and so this gives them an edge against Lily.
Lily's drug zbound is not approved yet um for this indication. And so it gives them sort of a a leg up there. Um, and then it also gets um I mean it it sort of is another benefit for Novo because they've been struggling over the last year uh just with Zepbound sort of making um waves in the market and and taking market share from WGOI.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- ozempic pricing
- wegovy us approval
- m&a in hr software
- airline strikes and guidance
- openai insider selling
Companies and tickers mentioned
- NVO
- Novo Nordisk A/S
- Thoma Bravo
- Dayforce Inc.
- Air Canada
- OpenAI
- Thrive Capital
- SoftBank Group Corp.
- Dragoneer Investment Group
Watch the episode
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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