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Novo Nordisk stock (NVO) jumped more than 2% in trading Wednesday after beating Wall Street's profit estimates for the first quarter and despite a slight cut to its sales forecast for the year.
Novo reported $11.9 billion in revenue, in line with Wall Street's estimates, and beat on adjusted earnings per share (EPS) with $0.99 per share compared to estimates of $0.94 per share.
Sales of the company's blockbuster GLP-1 drugs, up 13% year over year, drove the quarter's results, despite a slight slowdown in weight loss sales.
Wegovy sales came in at $2.6 billion, 7% below Wall Street's consensus; Ozempic sales for the quarter were $4.9 billion, or about 3% ahead of estimates.
Pressure on Wegovy sales could ease as the company sees a slowing of compounded copies of the weight-loss drug after the FDA confirmed the shortage was over earlier this year. The drug has been losing market share to competitor Eli Lilly's (LLY) Zepbound in the US.
Still, CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen said on an earnings call Wednesday morning that despite that slowdown, Novo Nordisk holds about 72% of the global obesity and diabetes GLP-1 market share.
"We have launched Wegovy in 25 countries, including three in that last month, reflecting greater supply availability," Jørgensen said.
Novo Nordisk has engaged in a number of deals in the past month that would increase access to the drug in the US, including relationships with telehealth platforms like Hims & Hers (HIMS) and being named the preferred drug on CVS's (CVS) formulary list. The latter sent Eli Lilly's stock diving last week.
Jørgensen said the CVS deal would only serve a fraction of the market and was "not really about gaining a share short-term."
Novo cut sales guidance for the year by 3%. It now estimates sales growth of 13% to 21%, compared to previous guidance of 16% to 24%.
Anjalee Khemlani is the senior health reporter at Yahoo Finance, covering all things pharma, insurance, care services, digital health, PBMs, and health policy and politics. That includes GLP-1s, of course. Follow Anjalee as AnjKhem on social media platforms X, LinkedIn, and Bluesky @AnjKhem.
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