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Novo Nordisk on Wednesday reported a beat in third-quarter sales of its blockbuster weight-loss drug Wegovy and lowered its full-year 2024 growth guidance.
The company's shares rose early on Wednesday and were last up 7.7% at 9:02 a.m. London time.
The Danish pharmaceutical giant said its net profit in the third quarter reached 27.3 billion Danish crowns ($3.92 billion), above an aggregate LSEG estimate of 26.95 billion Danish crowns. .
Novo Nordisk added that Wegovy sales increased 79% year-on-year in the third quarter, reaching DKK 17.3 billion. This exceeded the 15.9 billion Danish crowns that analysts had expected based on a consensus drawn up by the company, Reuters reported.
The company lowered its full-year 2024 sales growth outlook to 23% to 27% from 22% to 28% at constant exchange rates and adjusted its operating profit growth guidance to 21% to 27%. , compared to the 20% previously expected. % to 28%, both at constant exchange rates.
The guidance reflected the company's expectations for sales growth in North America and internationally, which is largely driven by volume growth of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1)-based treatments. ), Novo Nordisk said.
“Following higher than expected volume growth in recent years, including LPG-1 based products such as Ozempic and Wegovy, combined with the expectation of continued volume growth and capacity constraints at some manufacturing sites, the outlook They also reflect expected continued periodic supply restrictions and related notifications of drug shortages across a range of products and geographies,” it added.
Novo Nordisk added that it was investing in capacity both internally and externally to increase supply in the short and long term.
Regionally, Novo Nordisk sales increased 22% in North America in the third quarter of 2024 compared to the previous year. Sales to the key US market increased 21% during the period, with LPG-1 volume growing 15% in the region.
“Novo Nordisk is the market leader with 53.9% measured in total monthly prescriptions and 50.0% measured in new branded prescriptions,” the company said.
The health titan has weathered increasingly tough competition, but it also received promising news in the weight loss space in recent months.
Last week, the US Food and Drug Administration said all doses of Wegovy were now available in the US after previously noting that the lowest dose of Wegovy was in short supply. The news was taken as a sign that Novo Nordisk's efforts to increase supplies of Wegovy and the diabetes drug Ozempic are paying off.
Also in October, a study showed that Ozempic could reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, suggesting its potential to delay or prevent this memory-robbing disease.
— CNBC's Annika Kim Constantino contributed to this story.
