ewsba.se
Novo Nordisk hiked annual profit guidance on Wednesday, as the pharmaceutical group revealed its blockbuster weight-loss drugs performed better than expected in the first three months of the year.
The Danish drugmaker said first-quarter sales jumped 32% on a constant currency basis to reach 96.8 billion Danish kroner ($15.2 billion), soaring above an analyst consensus of 71.3 billion kroner compiled by FactSet. Operating profit surged 65% year-on-year to 59.6 billion kroner, also hugely beating expectations of 31.7 billion kroner.
The quarter was the first period covering sales of Novo's oral weight loss drug, the Wegovy pill, in the U.S. Sales of the pill amounted to 2.26 billion kroner, well above analyst estimates compiled by Reuters of 1.16 billion kroner.
Despite accounting for only a fraction of total sales, investors are closely watching the sales trajectory of the pills, which is widening the market for these drugs.
In its earnings release on Wednesday, Novo said the Wegovy pill, which saw around 1.3 million prescriptions in the first three months of the year, had been the strongest-ever GLP-1 volume launch in the U.S.
However, sales of its injectable Wegovy drug jumped 12% year-on-year to 18,235, falling slightly short of expectations compiled by LSEG.
Meanwhile, sales of diabetes drug Ozempic fell by 8%, but came in above expectations, according to LSEG.
The broader obesity care category saw adjusted constant currency sales rise by 22%.
Novo said the sales increases were positively impacted by a provision reversal related to the 340B Drug Pricing Program in the US.
Novo hiked its 2026 full-year guidance on the back of increased expectations for GLP-1 product sales, saying it now expects adjusted sales to contract by -4% to -12% on a currency-adjusted basis. Adjusted operating profit growth is now expected to fall in the range of -4% to -12%.