Wegovy maker Novo Nordisk said surging demand for its first weight loss pill has put it on track to beat trading forecasts.<\/p>\n
Shares in the Copenhagen-based pharmaceutical firm shot higher in early trading on Wednesday as a result.<\/p>\n
Novo Nordisk launched its Wegovy pill in January amid a battle in the weight loss drug market with Mounjaro manufacturer Eli Lilly.<\/p>\n
The Danish firm had seen sales and profits falter after demand for its injection treatments was hit hard by the rapid growth of rival drugs firms with weigh loss pills.<\/p>\n
It said the Wegovy pill\u2019s launch was the strongest of any obesity drug in the US.<\/p>\n
Novo Nordisk reported more than two million prescriptions of the pill since its launch, with weekly prescriptions currently exceeding 200,000.<\/p>\n
Sales of the pill reach 2.26 billion Danish krone (\u00a3261 million) in the quarter to March 31, surpassing analyst predictions.<\/p>\n
The group\u2019s adjusted net sales were nevertheless down 10% for the quarter, with adjusted operating profit down 15%.<\/p>\n
It said adjusted sales could dip by as much as 12% for the year, but this marked an improvement from previous guidance of 13%.<\/p>\n
Mike Doustdar, president and chief executive of Novo Nordisk, said: \u201cWegovy is driving a strong start to 2026 for Novo Nordisk, led by the rapid adoption of Wegovy pill \u2013 the most efficacious GLP-1 tablet now used by more than one million patients since its January launch.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs the global momentum behind peptide-based therapies accelerates, Wegovy pill is defining a novel category as the only oral peptide for the treatment of obesity, setting a new benchmark for what patients and physicians can expect.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe strong Wegovy performance, combined with continued growth in international operations, has led us to raise our 2026 guidance for both adjusted sales and adjusted operating profit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG, said: \u201cAfter the madness of the last three years it looks like Novo\u2019s shares are returning to their longer-term trend \u2013 the euphoria that saw the shares reach such dizzying highs has entirely evaporated, but today\u2019s numbers still point to a very healthy business and a long-term opportunity in Wegovy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt might not have changed the world overnight, but it certainly marked a shift in treatments, a more consequential story in the long run, and one far more beneficial to sensible growth in the share price.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wegovy maker Novo Nordisk said surging demand for its first weight loss pill has put it on track…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75998,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[271],"tags":[31137,272,280],"class_list":{"0":"post-75997","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-novo-nordisk","8":"tag-launch","9":"tag-novo-nordisk","10":"tag-weight-loss"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116527419040306926","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}