COPENHAGEN: Shares in the world’s top insulin maker, Novo Nordisk, plunged Monday after Denmark’s most valuable company reported supply chain issues for an anti-obesity drug in the United States.

By 1000 GMT on Monday, Novo Nordisk shares were down by more than 10 percent in Copenhagen, falling faster than the five-percent slump on the blue-chip OMX index.

“A contract manufacturer filling syringes for Wegovy pens for the US market has temporarily stopped deliveries and manufacturing,” the pharma company had said late Friday, blaming “issues with good manufacturing practices”.

“Novo Nordisk does not expect to be able to meet demand in the US in the first half of 2022 and few new patients are expected to be able to initiate treatment,” it said.

Sales of obesity treatment Wegovy had outperformed expectations since its launch in the US, the group had said in its third-quarter report.

Novo Nordisk still expects to report growth in both revenue and operating profit of between 12 and 15 percent for this year. It expects to resume Wegovy deliveries in the US in the second half of 2022.