Lesson Learned: Don't Trust Twitter Users With A Multi-Billion-Dollar Secret

Novo Nordisk A/S (ADR) NVO presented data at the American Diabetes Association on Monday and trusted the doctors in attendance to not share the confidential and market-moving data they just saw.

As if that would actually happen in the modern day of smartphones and social media.

Doctors Can Cause Facepalms, Too

According to Bloomberg, hundreds, if not thousands of in-person attendees listened to Novo Nordisk discuss its diabetes treatment Victoza more than an hour before the data was officially released to the public.

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The company actually asked its attendees not to tweet the information they had flown in to see. This was widely ignored.

Within minutes of the company's presentation, several Twitter users posted pictures of Novo Nordisk's slide presentation, including the drug's success in cutting heart attacks and strokes by 13 percent and improving overall survival rates.

The American Diabetes Associated itself tweeted at the individuals in attendance to remove their posts.

"@cristinatejerap #2016ADA slides include unpublished data and are the intellectual property of the presenters. Please delete immediately." -@AmDiabetesAssn

As it turns out, shares of Novo Nordisk actually fell on Tuesday on the company's presentation. The company's drug which reduced heart attacks and strokes by 13 percent and improved overall survival rates may have fell short of what the market was expecting.