By Stine Jacobsen and Maggie Fick
COPENHAGEN, Aug 4 (Reuters) – Novo Nordisk beat second-quarter profit forecasts and raised its full-year outlook on Wednesday, but shares in the drugmaker fell 6% as investors focused on underwhelming sales of its Wegovy weight-loss pill.
The Danish drugmaker is battling to claw back lost ground from Lilly in the lucrative obesity drug market, as investors look for signs its turnaround can last and its new Wegovy pill can support longer-term growth.
Novo raised its outlook for sales and operating profit. Both are now seen in a range of zero to minus 6% at constant exchange rates compared with 2025, up from a previous range of minus 12% to minus 4%.
Some analysts had expected a guidance increase, pointing to resilient early demand for the Wegovy pill launched earlier this year.
But sales of the pill, a closely watched figure in the earnings report, came in at 3.22 billion crowns ($497 million), slightly below the 3.3 billion crowns analysts had expected, according to a poll compiled by the company. Citi said in a note that the performance of the Wegovy pill was likely leading to share weakness.
PROFIT BEATS FORECASTS, GUIDANCE RAISED
Novo, a key driver of Denmark’s economy, reported an adjusted operating profit of 33.4 billion Danish crowns in the second quarter, up 11% year-on-year, against a mean forecast of 28.74 billion in the company’s poll.
The results had originally been due on August 5.
Analysts said ahead of the earnings report that investors were looking beyond guidance, focusing on whether Novo’s recovery can last and whether the company can keep pace with Lilly as both seek to bring new weight-loss drugs to the market.
WEGOVY PILL GIVES A BOOST
The Danish obesity drugmaker has been getting a boost from its new Wegovy weight-loss pill as its injectable GLP-1 weight-loss treatment lost ground in recent years.
CEO Mike Doustdar, who took the helm at Novo a year ago, has been seeking to steady the group after it was battered by repeated sales shortfalls, a collapse in market value and a wave of job cuts, leaning heavily on the newly launched Wegovy pill to drive a recovery.
Novo sued Eli Lilly in a U.S. federal court last month, accusing its American rival of false advertising. Lilly has denied any wrongdoing, saying it stands by its advertising.
The lawsuit is the latest front in a rivalry that has come to define the obesity drug market, which some analysts expect to be worth more than $100 billion a year by 2030.
Lilly still leads in the U.S. market for injectable weight-loss drugs, and investors are watching for signs Novo can compete beyond its current medicines through new pipeline results, deals or a sustained recovery in prescriptions.
NOVO COMING OFF A DRUG TRIAL SETBACK
Novo’s adjusted earnings excluded 6.3 billion crowns in non-recurring, non-cash impairment charges in the second quarter related to intangible pipeline assets, including 4.0 billion crowns related to monlunabant, an oral experimental obesity drug.
Novo’s prospects for diversifying beyond obesity and diabetes drugs suffered a setback last week, when its experimental cardiovascular drug ziltivekimab failed to reduce the risk of major heart events in a late-stage trial.
That result removed one of Novo’s most promising assets outside its core franchise and has fuelled calls from analysts and investors for the company to pursue acquisitions to find new growth drivers.
($1 = 6.4840 Danish crowns)
(Reporting by Stine Jacobsen, Maggie Fick and Bhanvi Satija, editing by Terje Solsvik, Adam Jourdan and Edmund Klamann)
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