Novo Strategic Reset Under Doustdar: Post-CMD Buying Spree Continues with $2.6B Hengrui Deal for Once-Weekly Obesity Pill

Novo Strategic Reset Under Doustdar: Post-CMD Buying Spree Continues with $2.6B Hengrui Deal for Once-Weekly Obesity Pill

Novo Nordisk's attempt to reclaim ground lost to Eli Lilly now has a visible playbook: a leadership/board overhaul, thousands of layoffs, a sober Capital Markets Day, and a rapid-fire series of pipeline acquisitions. The latest and largest: on Sept. 29, 2026, Novo announced it is paying China's Hengrui Pharma $300M upfront, with milestones up to $2.6B, for rights (outside Greater China) to HRS-1596, a once-weekly oral GLP-1/GIP dual agonist — "a weekly pill intended to compete with Eli Lilly's sector-leading obesity shot Zepbound."

The catch — and the investor skepticism: HRS-1596 has "yet to be tested in humans" (described as "Phase 1 ready") and "could be years away from a regulatory clearance." BioPharma Dive's verdict: "HRS-1596 may not address those concerns." Leerink's David Risinger, who covers Kailera — the US biotech whose obesity pipeline was built largely from Hengrui-licensed assets — wrote that Kailera "might have had right of first refusal on HRS-1596" and that because the drug is pre-clinical, there is "limited data available to assess its profile."

Context: the deal is one of at least four recent Novo pipeline transactions, part of what BioPharma Dive calls an effort to "calm investor fears about its future" as Wegovy faces potential generic competition in the early 2030s and Zepbound keeps taking share¹:

• Kallyope (early Sept.): three experimental obesity drugs working via non-GLP-1 mechanisms
• Orbis Medicines (Sept. 17): macrocyclic peptides suitable for oral delivery
• Vivtex (Feb.): oral biologics platform
• Plus the earlier United Laboratories UBT251 triple-agonist license

Standing context from the Sept. 21 Capital Markets Day (prior cycle): Novo guided to mid-single-digit long-term growth ambition — a marked downshift from the obesity-boom era — and the market's verdict was another vote of no confidence: shares fell ~8% on the day and Morningstar trimmed fair value. Morningstar still ranks zenagamtide (amycretin), not CagriSema or HRS-1596, as Novo's most promising pipeline asset (2029 launch est.).

Investor takeaway: Novo is paying up for preclinical-stage optionality while its core franchise faces a January 2027 price-cut wall (Ozempic −35%, Wegovy −50% list) and the CagriSema FDA decision (~Nov 15). The Hengrui deal signals management knows the next-gen gap is real — but a "Phase 1 ready" asset does nothing for the 2027–2029 P&L. Watch whether the buying spree converts to clinical wins (zenagamtide Phase 3 T2D start is watched) or reads as desperation optionality.