(Reuters) -European shares fell on Tuesday as heavyweight Novo Nordisk slumped, while U.S. President Donald Trump’s vocal attacks on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell shook investor confidence which is already fragile due to concerns over the trade war.
Novo Nordisk dropped 8% after U.S. rival Eli Lilly’s experimental pill worked as well as the Danish drugmaker’s blockbuster drug Ozempic to lower weight and blood sugar in a trial of diabetes patients.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index was down 0.7% as of 0709 GMT.
Concerns over U.S. tariffs also kept investors on the edge as they returned from the Easter long weekend.
The week began on a dour note after Trump repeated his criticism of Powell to pressure the central bank into cutting interest rates quickly, raising concerns about its independence and igniting a sharp selloff on Wall Street on Monday.
Biotage shares surged 55.8% after the Swedish biotechnology firm said KKR made a cash offer for the firm, valuing it at around 11.6 billion Swedish crowns ($1.22 billion).
($1 = 9.5059 Swedish crowns)
(Reporting by Sukriti Gupta; Editing by Varun H K)
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