Novo Nordisk Gets US Approval for Wegovy Obesity Pill

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Well, we talked about how Nova Noordisk is one of the big movers today in early trading. The president and CEO of the drug maker says the company is going all in on weight loss drugs as his company is the first to come out with a pill to be sold in the US market.

He spoke with our Katie Greifeld earlier today.

This is really going to be super exciting for the millions of patients that have been waiting to get their hands on a gop one pill. And for the first time, we are having a pill that has an efficacy of some seventeen percent if you take the pill regularly, and one in three people are going to actually reduce up

Well, moving forward, I mean beyond just these first few months after Eli Lilly does have their pill on the market, how do you plan to compete? What is your strategy there given my understanding is that there's likely going to be no restrictions when it comes to food, when it comes to drinks around Lilly's version.

So, as I mentioned, there are no other phase three trials of oral gop one that has shown this level efficacy. This means that for the first time ever, people do not have compromise between either taking an efficacious injection or a convenient pill. For the first time ever, you have the same efficacy of seventeen percent in injection or at pill. You can take it on a daily basis as a pill or a weekly injection, and that I think is the key selling points.

With WeGo v pill.

We also have more than ten years of course experience with regards to safety data and what have you. That's why it's called the wegov pill, which means that this pill is not only going to reduce your weight, it also has protection for your cardiovascular systems. So this is a phenomenal pill, second to none, I would say, and we are very ready to compete with it.

Let's talk about how you're going to sell it through.

What channels?

Will you sell this way go v pill and will all of those channels be available at launch?

The quick answer is yes, we're going all in. We're of course going to sell this through our own websites, no WorkCare pharmacy, as well as all of our partners be a Row, Live, MD, Costco, weight watchers, everyone that you can imagine is going to start launching this at the same time on the day of the launch. Trum Our ex of course we'll be coming up soon as well well as well as of course the traditional channels that usually medicine is pro crud in us.

All right, that was the CEO of Novo Nordisk.

Let's bring in John Tozzy now he's a Bloomberg Healthcare reporter on this milestone for the Swiss drug maker.

Because Novo Nordisk was the first.

Mover here when it comes to the obesity treatments, but it quickly lost its lead to Eli Lilly.

Does this put it back in the lead again?

Yeah, I mean so for the Danish drug maker. I believe it's Danish. Yeah, No, I think it is. Listen, it is a milestone for sure. You know, patients have been waiting for an oral version of these weight loss drugs. This is the first pill to get approval in the United States. Ili Lily is not far behind. They've said they expect their pill to be a pill version of their weight loss drug zep bound to be approved as

So I would think that this would be kind of a step function in demand for the industry to have these error products available because I'm guessing there's just a bunch of people out there that don't like to get injections and that's a non starter for them. What's what's the expectation what this could do for the marketplace when we get more and more of these.

Oral Yeah, I mean, Novae CEO certainly said that they expect us to expand the market. I think will know pretty soon, right whether you know. I mean, first of all, the question of how many people currently using the injection convert to the pill form and how many new people start who have been reluctant for whatever reason. To take the injection, you know, whether it changes things like adherents.

But we'll see, we'll see.

And I remember Novo had a what they call the next gen treatment, cagri Semi, which didn't do well, and that tanked the stock. And it's partly why the stock has fallen by about half this year. Is that kind of an experiment that just went off the rails. And this was always kind of in the offing.

I mean I think, uh, you know, companies have been looking for an oral GLP one weight awes drug, you know, for uh, you know, for years. I think this has been a goal of the of the market. I mean, there is an oral pill for the diabetes indication.

Ye sorry, all right, that's good.

I mean I think this will just it'd be big for a lot of folks and hopefully the cost will continue to come down and now I'll make it available for more and more people.

John Tazzi Healthcare Report Bloomberg News.

Thanks so much for joining us here again, a good day go for Novo Nordisk bloodmore coming up.

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All right, here's the story that kind of caught me by surprise. I just wasn't on my radar screen. Sax Mull's bankruptcy year after raising billions for a turnaround.

When did that happen?

I know they've been having problems with paying off their debt and just kind of trying to restructure everything.

But this has been like a slow moving train rad.

I mean, it's a phenomenal brand.

Here.

Let's get to get the latest reporting on this.

Basu joints us here Bloomberg News credit reporter so Reshman.

What's going on with our friends at sas.

Sax is running out of money and the over the weekend we saw some lenders go into enter into confidential discussions to discuss the company's new money needs.

And what are the options on the table. At this point, a.

Chapter eleven is a possibility. Given the company is running out of cash. It's been having issues with its suppliers, so right now everyone's kind of scrambling to figure out how to salvage the company.

So talk to us about what they've been doing over the last several years and trying to stage this off and maybe raise some other capital.

What's what's been the recent pass life for this company?

Well, Sex has always had some issues with its vendors, and in late twenty twenty four they decided to partner up with Neiman Marcus in a two point seven billion deal, but the integration has not been growing great and the company is still struggling with negative EBITA, dealing with late payments to vendors. So it's just been having a lot of issues, a lot of pressure points coming all together once right before the holidays.

Who are the investors that have a lot at stake in this debt situation for Sex.

Yeah, it's a lot of you know, the Wall Street lenders that are involved in this name, and they've just seen you know, they're having a really tough time right now with like brounds, et cetera. So they're seeing you know, in Sacks, we're now seeing the debt trading in like the single digits.

How much debt do they have outstanding?

So they have more than two They did a two point two billion deal and on top of that, they did rescue financing back in August which added another like six hundred million, So.

There's this is real money for the banks are on the hook for.

Yeah, this is a lot. This is a lot of pain that's going to be going around.

So how do you see this shaping up?

What will you be looking for in twenty twenty six as this continues to be a story where SAX is working with creditors trying to persuade them to you know, pitch in more or restructure their existing agreements.

We'll be looking to see how the company and its lenders are going to structure the new money raise, whether or not that's going to take the form of a bankruptcy loan or a dip. And we'll also be looking to see who's ultimately going to take the keys, if we're going to see a change of control, and if lenders are going to assume control of the company. We're looking to be seen whether or not we see SAX and Nieman kind of separate from each other.

I mean, boy, some of this is brutal here.

So they have interest payment one hundred million dollars due like December thirtieth, nine hundred and forty one million dollar portion of sex second out notes. Not sure what a second out note is. And I've been in that business a long time. Trades for seven and a half cents on the dollar.

Yeah, that's that's that is brital. That's just stress level.

Yeah, and about seven hundred and sixty two million of more senior debt was quoted at forty eight cents.

So yeah, market's telling you.

Yeah, the market's saying that there's not a lot of value here. Like Sacks and Neeman markets were kind of known for their real estate value. But what we're seeing is that's really maybe not the case. So that's something that's going to be deliberated over the next coming weeks. How much is that real estate worth? How much are is the company's name worth?

Reshmie, let me ask you a question because I know a lot of our listeners are AMEX Platinum card holders, which means they get a fifty dollars credit at Sacks every six months and they'll be going into the stores to use that. Does this affect the operations on the ground, Will customers see any difference when they go into Saxsmith Avenue?

Well, I mean right now, we're seeing a ton of promotions taking place right now, and that's something that we've seen in retail for years now, a very promotional environment. So there's going to be a lot of discounts out there.

Are there other Sacks type stories out there that you're monitoring the name that could be a real credit problem.

Credit problem maybe Container Stores is the one that we are kind of keeping an eye out. They filed for bankruptcy, they exited, but there's you know, we're seeing a lot of discounts taking place there as well.

But this feels very different from you know, the problems that First Brands or Tree Colore had, which kind of came from out of nowhere. This feels, I was saying to Paul, like a slow moving train wreck. We've known about these problems at Sacks and Cantake for a while and it's a matter of just the two sides working it out right.

Like Sachs and Niman, the integration has just gone so wrong in so many ways and it's really not capturing the synergies that maybe lenders had initially hoped for when they did the deal.

Is there a call maybe for just a new management team that kind of come in there, if there is in.

Fact a reorganization here or filing, I mean.

We could definitely see lenders taking control of the company and installing their own people.

All right, Rushmi, thanks so much. Appreciate that that was the story. I was not aware of.

Rashmi Basu. She's a credit reporter for Bloomberg News joining Slacker in our Bloomberg Interactive Broker studio. And you know, if you bring somebody in here and you say, oh my gosh, is this a trend? And what do we hear with first brands and clear no, it is idiosyncratic.

Right yes, and one off well, and that really shocked people because it felt like it came from out of nowhere.

They didn't have a sense that this was happening.

Clearly, the integration with Neiman Marcus has been kind of troubling, so people had a sense that this was not going so well. And we know that the department stores as a whole just don't have a business model that resonates with younger consumers.

Yep.

Absolutely, And if you don't have a digital strategy down then you're just in a world of hurt here and then. And it just I think being a former banker with the screams to me is just the capitol structure isn't appropriate for the business the way it is today. You can't capital, you can't have that much debt on this

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I haven't seen the Bloomberg reporting all morning about how many gajillions of people are gonna be flying this weekend.

I mean, it's just crazy.

I feel like this schedule has changed a little bit of calendar has changed since COVID because people are able to leave it a little bit earlier work from home, you know, for the few days before the holiday.

Yeah, apparently like yesterday the day before where it was the crazy day. So that just kind of brings you to how are the airlines doing that there? And what's the out look for twenty twenty six for the airlines? Here George Ferguson, Senior Aerospace, Defense and Airlines anast from Bloomberg Intelligence.

It says he's on Zoom from the Jersey office. I'm not buying it. I think it's a beach and you.

Got a backdrop there that's CGI. But I look at him, he's in the Princeton office. I mean, all right, George, thanks for joining us here. I appreciate you putting the effort there, sir, talk to us about the airline business. How healthy is it today and kind of what's the outlook for tomorrow? Because every time I got on a plane, it's packed, dude.

It is. But remember, you know, those revenue management officers. They don't like to let airplanes go down the runway less than eighty plus percent full anymore. So you need to tell me the price that everybody paid before I get really excited about packed airplanes. Anyways, I'll get off that soapbox right now. Look, I think you know, as we get into twenty twenty six, we're looking at schedules, we're seeing a lot of the growth coming from the

So it sounds like there's going to be a surplus of those premium seats and then that leaves big empty hole here for the frontiers and the spirits. Are they going to be forced to offer also some kind of premium version of what they currently have an offer?

I don't know.

I mean, I think everybody's trying to figure out a way to get more premium in their airplane. They're not you know, they're not forced, but they want they want that premium travel that's gonna just keep flying through, you know, through good and bad economic times and not have the challenges of inflation on their budget and things like that.

Wages, that's a big cost component for these airlines. I want my pilots happy and want them feeling like they're well paid.

Talk to those about the wage the dynamic in the industry.

Yeah, I mean, look, you know, we still see you know, I don't know that I want to call it a shortage, but you know, it's a it's a difficult balance between the number of pilots out there and what's needed by the airlines and the you know, the number of people coming into the industry and getting air transport licenses and things like that, and so the pilots are still decently paid. You know, they came off years decades ago. They just had many, many bad years. There was a surplus of them.

So wager is a big part of the airlines costs the biggest part, but then fuel is the second biggest or it can be and jet fuel has actually come down in twenty twenty five. Is that going to continue to be a tailwind in twenty twenty six.

So you know, we kind of we looked at it recently, put it out on the Bloomberg Terminal BI Space AI RLN. We did some scenario analysis on this look. I have a hard time seeing fuel prices dip significantly lower than here. But I am no oil man. Right if I was, i'd own a football team, But I'm not oil man.

Did the airlines hedge their fuel exposure, because boy, I think I'd be hedging right here if I were CFO.

Not anymore. I think every so often they surprise you and so I hear what you're saying, Like, you know, you could see one of those crazy the cfo's out there going, hey, we might as well edge here, could be as good as we get. We saw Southwest do that a number of times in their history and win big but for the most part recently, what we've seen is almost the entire field does not hedge fuel prices anymore. If you think about it, they kind of sell tickets out six eight weeks, so they have sort of a

Hard to stick your neck out.

Yeah, I guess I don't know, unless you think you've got to handle on the market.

George Ferguson, thanks so much, appreciate it as always.

George Ferguson, a senior aerospace, Defense and Airlines analles for Bloomberg Intelligence.

I think I figured out George. He's in the office today.

But then I bet you a bunch of them are going to noon bag out good to Tiger's tawn. But he's sent his work for the Yeah, they're can go to the Tiger's Tail and have a little holiday and you wish you're there with you exactly.

It's a great great spot there right around the Bloomberg offices down there in Princeton.

Stay with us.

More from Bloomberg Intelligence coming up after this.

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Let's head over now to Washington, DC and check in with Nathan Dean, he is Bloomberg Intelligence Senior policy Analyst, to kind of wrap up the year that was in twenty twenty five and look ahead to twenty twenty six. Because you can't overstate just how much of an influence politics and policy had on the markets this year.

Clients actually demand access to Nathan Dean and the and his notes get huge readership because politics definitely impacts investments.

I mean, you just look at the crypto space, for instance, look at the fininancial space, a banking space.

Nathan, thank you so.

Much for joining us today on the eve of Christmas, eve which industry saw the biggest impact, for better or for worse from policy.

So obviously, I think the first thing to do is look at President Trump's one big beautiful bill, and really that's clean energy. You know, we saw a lot of the tax credits curtailed in terms of just both solar and wind, and both industries are really significantly being felt in terms of you know, those actions. I would also say is there's a lot of sentiment out there in terms of crypto and financial services, like you just said, but twenty twenty six is going to bring even more

Just in the banking space.

For example, you know, back of the Napkin math, because we haven't seen some proposals that haven't come out yet, we're estimating around seventy three to seventy five billion dollars in capital that we returned to the big banks, So think of Bank America, Chap Morgan, and City Group. And then in the crypto space, obviously, you know, we had some stable coin legislation passed that is now going to

It's also an election year in twenty twenty six. How does that impact how legislation gets passed or doesn't pass?

How's that work?

Yeah, so you know for twenty twenty six, every day that all four and thirty five members of the House and thirty three members of the Senate are here, it's to day that their opponent is back home campaigning against them, and look, they don't want to be here. So we're telling our clients is that legislation is going to be very difficult to come by in twenty twenty six. Now the Republicans want to have another bite of what's called

We're somewhat barish on this just because.

The margin of the margins of the House representative are pretty thin right now and Look, if it was easy, they would have already done it, the Republicans. But there are some other bills out there, like I mentioned the Crypto Bill. But twenty twenty six is a story about deregulation because regulators live here, they don't go home, and

Yeah, that's going to be something we're going to really focus in on in twenty twenty six. If the Supreme Court does rule against the President, what does that mean for the efforts by importers to claim a refund or to.

Try to get back some of that money.

You know.

So Bloomberg News had a call um a couple of weeks ago and they use the term refund chaos.

And I love that two word phrase because that's just.

Going to show you how difficult it will be to get refunds because to the best of our knowledge, it's not like one company like Amazon could go to and just say, look, give me a check for f one hundred million dollars. You have to go down to the line item, by each individual line item because each individual line item has certain tariffs associated with it.

So it's going to be messy.

And there's also no way to we can figure that there would be an electronic version of this, wire would have to be a paper check.

So I think there's a lot of folks out there saying, look, if the refilms are coming, it's going to be quarters, if not years, And I would just say, is that.

You know.

The other thing to keep in mind is that the Trump adminstration most likely will launch these investigations. So if you're in the press, you see section two thirty two or section three oh one, think investigation. But those investigations take time. And the biggest question that we have we don't have this answer yet, is will President Trump reimpose these tariffs three, four or five months before the elections when they're extremely unpopular with the populace.

Jeez, I mean, that's going to be crazy to see how that plays out. What else here Nathan is the expectation in Washington that the Democrats will win back the House.

Perhaps, so it's certainly looking that way.

I mean, just go historically, and the minority party has always done extremely well. I mean, think of President Obama, the Tea Party comes in, think of President Trump, Nancy Pelosi becomes Speaker of the House. So historically that which suggests that the momentum goes back towards the Democrats. But we've seen, you know, in Virginia, New Jersey, Miami, New York City, that the Democrats are performing much better than

Into these midterms. Now, if you think of how.

Do the midterms actually impact the investing side, I would say is one, it takes away the opportunity for this reconciliation method again. So they get twenty twenty seven, You're not going to see a very large tax cut bill or deficit inducing bill.

It brings things back down to gridlock.

I'm not saying nothing can get done, but it just means that legislation is going to be less of an emphasis. And President Trump to implement policy is going to focus more on executive orders and then the deregulatory method.

Is there any appetite Nathan in Washington to address AI and to set up some more standard guidelines for companies to operate in. I mean, I think about Nvidia and how it's the poster child of the AI revolution here in the US, and Jensen Wang has pretty much gotten everything he wanted.

Yeah, So President Trump issued an executive order on artificial Intelligence, essentially combating the state's abilities to create their.

Own rules on AI.

Now, our legal analysts, Matt Shaddam has looked at it and said, most likely this would not pass court muster, so that AI executive order probably doesn't have much teeth to it. But in that executive order, President Trump also directed the Executive Branch to come up with a national standard.

All right, Nithan Deane, very good, appreciate it as always.

Nathan Deane, Senior policy analyst for Bloomberg Intelligency is based down there in Washington, DC.

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