*

Novo Nordisk appoints Doustdar as new CEO amid sales

concerns

*

Shares drop as much as 29.8% after CEO change and profit

warning

*

Doustdar faces challenge to revive US market performance

(Adds shares in paragraph 3, detail on new CEO in 1,4,6)

By Stine Jacobsen and Maggie Fick

COPENHAGEN, July 29 (Reuters) -

Novo Nordisk named Maziar Mike Doustdar as its new chief

executive on Tuesday, relying on an experienced company insider

to revive sales and a share price hit by worries the maker of

weight-loss drug Wegovy is falling behind in a race it started.

The appointment comes after the abrupt removal in May of

CEO Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen by Novo and the Novo

Nordisk Foundation - the Danish company's controlling

shareholder, and follows a growth warning earlier on Tuesday.

Shares in Novo Nordisk were down by around 16% following

the profit warning and plummeted further following the CEO

announcement. Shares were down by as much as 29.8% by 1149 GMT,

wiping over 80 billion euros ($92.26 billion) off its market

value, though later recovered some ground to be down 20%.

Doustdar, an Iranian-born, Austrian national, who grew up in

the United States, joined Novo in 1992 and will take on the new

role on August 7.

Doustdar currently serves as vice president for

international operations, a role he took after leading the

company's businesses first in the Middle East and then in

Southeast Asia, Novo said.

Some analysts and investors had argued that Novo should

select an American, or a person with extensive experience

working in the United States as its next CEO. Novo has lost its

first-mover advantage in the United States this year to U.S.

rival Eli Lilly ( LLY ).

Novo's profit warning came on rising competition and

copycat versions of its weight-loss drug that hurt sales this

year, but a crackdown on these so-called compounded versions of

Wegovy in May could improve the situation.

The new chief executive's most urgent challenge, according

to investors and analysts, is to revive Novo's performance in

the United States, the largest market by far for weight-loss

drugs and where they are most profitable.

Novo launched its weight-loss drug Wegovy nearly two and a

half years before U.S. rival Eli Lilly's ( LLY ) Zepbound. But Zepbound

prescriptions surpassed those of Wegovy this year by more than

100,000 a week.

The appointment comes at a challenging time for the global

pharmaceutical industry as U.S. President Donald Trump threatens

to impose tariffs on imports and calls on drugmakers to lower

their U.S. prescription prices.

WEIGHT-LOSS DRUG BOOM

Jorgensen led Novo through a period of meteoric growth as it

led the weight-loss drug boom, becoming Europe's most valuable

listed company following the launch of Wegovy in 2021. At its

peak in June 2024 Novo was worth as much as $615 billion.

But Novo shares have plunged since then on investor concerns

about the company's experimental drug pipeline and its ability

to navigate challenges in the U.S. market, such as the threat to

its sales from compounded copies of Wegovy and Lilly's Zepbound.

($1 = 0.8672 euros)