Obesity drug maker Novo Nordisk lifts sales forecast

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Novo Nordisk, the Danish pharmaceutical group behind a best-selling obesity drug, has lifted its annual sales forecast as it expands its manufacturing capacity to tackle supply chain bottlenecks.

The drugmaker, best known for its new weight-loss medicine Wegovy, now expects sales to grow 27-33 per cent this year and operating profit to climb 31-37 per cent, smashing its previous forecasts.

The improving outlook for Novo was also down to higher than expected demand in the US for Ozempic, its diabetes drug. Some clinicians have been prescribing Ozempic, which contains the same active ingredient as Wegovy but is designed for diabetics, to patients who want to use it to tackle obesity.

The new forecasts from Novo factor in periodic supply constraints, as the company has struggled to keep up with demand for its obesity drug. Wegovy is only available in a handful of markets, with the majority of sales in the US, where supplies of some lower doses of the drug are restricted to ensure existing patients can rely on a continuous supply.

“It is not often that you have a 100-year-old company and you’re still growing at 30 per cent,” Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen, Novo’s chief executive, told reporters on Thursday.

Novo previously expected sales growth of 24-30 per cent and operating profit growth of 28-34 per cent.

Jørgensen said the company was investing in manufacturing capacity “like never before”, spending DKr25bn ($3.7bn).

Shares in Novo rose to a record high this week after the company published headline data from a trial that showed its obesity drug cut the risk of serious cardiac events such as heart attacks and strokes by about 20 per cent.

“We have a very positive situation that demand is very strong, and that demand, by the way, most likely just became much stronger this week after announcing the select data,” Jørgensen said, referring to the trial results.

Analysts believe the trial — the largest conducted by the company — will help Novo persuade more health systems and insurers to pay for the drug.

Payers have been reluctant to cover the drug because of the potential cost of providing it to the huge number of people with obesity, including about 40 per cent of US adults.

Martin Lange, executive vice-president of development at Novo, said the trial had the potential to create “fundamental change” in how obesity was regarded.

In the first half, Novo reported sales in line with expectations at DKr108bn, up 30 per cent from the same period a year earlier. Sales in obesity care more than doubled. Earnings per share were DKr17.41, up 44 per cent year on year but slightly below expectations.

Novo also announced plans to acquire Canadian biotech group Inversago Pharma for up to $1.1bn, adding its early-stage drug candidate to treat obesity and diabetic kidney disease to its portfolio.