Novo Nordisk says starter doses of weight-loss drug surge as company hikes financial outlook

By Steve Goldstein

New outlook catches Novo Nordisk up to consensus estimates

Novo Nordisk said its Wegovy injectable drug for weight loss now has more than 130,000 weekly prescriptions in North America alone after the company boosted supplies to meet insatiable demand.

Karsten Knudsen, Novo Nordisk's chief financial officer, told an analyst on a call that starter doses of Wegovy in the U.S. rose from around 5,000 weekly at the start of the year to more than 25,000.

Sales of Wegovy more than doubled in the first quarter, while the GLP-1 drug for diabetes patients, Ozempic, saw sales jump by 42%.

Overall, Novo Nordisk's profit in the first quarter jumped 28% to 25.4 billion Danish kroner ($2.3 billion), as sales rose 22% to 65.34 billion kroner. Analysts polled by Visible Alpha had expected a profit of 23.29 billion kroner on sales of 63.61 billion kroner.

The Danish company is now forecasting operating profit growth between 22% and 30% for the year on sales growth between 19% and 27%, both of which are upgrades of 1 percentage point. Analysts already were expecting 26% operating profit growth on 24% sales growth, so the new numbers merely get the drugmaker to around consensus estimates.

Knudsen said the new outlook reflects the improved Wegovy sales in the U.S. "Wegovy is key to growth acceleration for the remainder of the year," he said.

Novo Nordisk shares (DK:NOVO.B) (NVO) slipped 1% in Copenhagen trading.

Over the last 15 years, the stock has produced an annualized return of 28%, according to FactSet data, compared with the 10% return for the broader Stoxx Europe 600 over the same time frame. That has led it to become Europe's largest company by market cap.

Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly (LLY) dominate the market for GLP-1 drugs, which have shown effectiveness not just in cutting weight but reducing cardiovascular disease.

-Steve Goldstein

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05-02-24 0945ET

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