Knorr and Nord respond to declining market share: sales of weight loss drugs in China are still on the rise.

In the Chinese market, the sales of Novo Nordisk's semaglutide, a diabetes drug, also experienced a decrease of around 11% in the first half of this year. During an investor conference call after the financial report was released, Zyarel Michael Duster, the current Vice President of International Business at Novo Nordisk who will take over as CEO from Fude Zhou on August 7th, responded to investors' concerns about the competitive challenges facing semaglutide in the Chinese market. Duster stated that while sales of GLP-1 diabetes drugs in China have decreased, sales of weight loss drugs are gradually increasing. He explained that the decline in diabetes drug sales was due to changes in distributor inventory, and the weight loss drug semaglutide, which was just approved last year, is still in the initial stage of rollout and has not yet penetrated into second, third, and fourth-tier cities.