Novo is open to considering a direct listing of its shares on the New York Stock Exchange, chief executive officer Mike Doustdar told the Financial Times.

The shift to listing shares directly would replace the American depositary receipts (ADR) U.S. investors currently use to trade the Danish drugmaker's stock.

The company is not currently pursuing the change, but the announcement signals how central the U.S. market has become to Novo at a moment when it is fighting to hold ground against rival Eli Lilly.

What Doustdar said

When asked directly whether Novo would consider a direct New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) listing, Doustdar did not rule it out. "I clearly do see some advantages with that," he said, pointing to how far the company's investor base has shifted beyond its home region. "Our investor community to a larger extent has shifted over the last 20 years [outside of] Scandinavia, and we are increasingly speaking to investors in the U.S. ... in addition to [our long-term investors]," he said.

According to the interview, the idea of a direct U.S. listing has circulated inside the company for roughly a decade, but Doustdar says there hasn’t been “active dialogue or discussions" about it since he took over as CEO last year.¹

He characterized his posture toward the question as deliberately open rather than settled: "I'm a type who doesn't start with a 'no' typically; I start with 'maybe.' Can you give me the pros and the cons of that and let's have a dialogue and discussions about it," he told the Finical times, while stressing that no formal process is underway.^1,2

Why the US market carries so much weight

The calculus behind even a hypothetical listing change is rooted in Novo’s revenue mix, with more than half of the company's revenue coming from the U.S., as American customers are driving the bulk of sales of its diabetes and weight-management medicines, including Ozempic.^1,2

A move to direct listing would replace the current ADR structure and give U.S. investors direct access to Novo shares through the NYSE rather than through depositary receipts.²

Novo Nordisk would not be the first European drugmaker to make this move, as UK-based AstraZeneca pursued a similar change to its listing structure earlier this year. The decision places Novo’s openness to the idea within a broader pattern of European pharmaceutical companies reconsidering how they access U.S. capital markets as American sales and American investors take on greater weight in their businesses.²

A rivalry that gives the question urgency

The listing question surfaces against a backdrop of competitive strain. Novo rode a wave of demand after launching weight-loss drug Wegovy in 2021, a run that made it Europe's most valuable listed company in 2023, with a market value exceeding $600 billion.¹ Since that peak, its shares have fallen more than 70%, even as its rival in the GLP-1 space Eli Lilly's have climbed.

What remains unresolved

No timetable or formal proposal for a direct U.S. listing has been announced, and Novo’s primary listing remains on Nasdaq Copenhagen.^1,2 Doustdar's remarks leave the company positioned to revisit the idea rather than committed to it.

Sources

1. Novo Nordisk Open to Direct New York listing, CEO Doustdar tells FT Reuters September 23, 2026, https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/novo-nordisk-open-new-york-listing-upgrade-ceo-doustdar-tells-ft-2026-09-23/
2. Novo Nordisk CEO Says Company Open to Direct NYSE Share Listing Yahoo Finance September 23, 2026, https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/novo-nordisk-ceo-says-company-