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Sales of Novo Nordisk’s obesity drug, Wegovy, rose by more than 50 per cent last year, helping the Danish drugmaker beat revenue expectations.
The company on Wednesday reported that net sales increased by 26 per cent year on year in 2024 to DKr290bn ($40bn), driven by sales of obesity and diabetes drugs, particularly in the US. That was higher than the average analyst estimate of DKr288bn.
Diluted earnings per share were up 22 per cent year on year to DKr22.63, slightly lower than the consensus forecast of DKr22.86.
This year, Novo Nordisk expects total sales growth to slow to between 16 and 24 per cent, and operating profit to increase by between 19 and 27 per cent, both at constant exchange rates.
Shares in Novo have fallen about 40 per cent since their highs last June, as investors have started to question the scale of the obesity drug market and whether specialist drugmakers are overvalued.
Novo briefly lost its position as the largest company in Europe to luxury goods group LVMH in choppy trading in January, before retaking the top spot later that month.
Novo disappointed the market at the end of December with late-stage trial data for its new drug CagriSema that did not meet the company’s target of 25 per cent weight loss. The news was taken to show Novo could not beat US rival Eli Lilly and wiped €90bn off its market capitalisation.
More recently, however, a positive result in an early stage trial of another of its obesity drugs, amycretin, sent its shares up as much as 13 per cent.
