A $250 mistake seems set to cost Ozempic maker Novo Nordisk billions

According to Science columnist Derek Lowe, the Ozempic and Wegovy maker made a costly mistake in Canada, where generic versions of its drugs are set to hit the market next year. 

According to Lowe, Novo Nordisk did file a patent for semaglutide, the main component of their weight-loss and diabetes medicine, but failed to pay the annual maintenance fee on the patent.

Lowe unearthed a letter where the Danish company’s lawyers even asked for a refund in 2017 for its $250 maintenance fee because the company, now worth more than $350 billion, wasn’t sure if it wanted to pay it.

In 2019, the Canadian patent office sent Novo Nordisk a letter saying it hadn’t received their fee, and that it was now $450. Lowe discovered that ultimately the company never paid the maintenance fee, even within the one-year grace period, paving the way for the patent to lapse.  Canadians' ability to get generic versions of the drugs starting in 2026 could cost the company a few billion dollars in profits, according to some projections.

The Canadian kerfuffle comes amid tough times for Novo Nordisk, which, until quite recently, had been virtually synonymous with a booming weight loss drug market that could hit $139 billion by 2030.

The company has struggled to meet surging demand, ceding ground to both its Big Pharma rival Eli Lilly $LLY, and to smaller firms making compounded versions of weight loss drugs. Its pipeline of next-generation weight loss drugs has underwhelmed. And after the stock fell 50% in a year, Novo Nordisk CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen resigned earlier this month.

—Harri Weber contributed to this article.