Novo Nordisk quarterly profit meets expectations as Wegovy maker narrows full-year guidance

Novo Nordisk on Wednesday reported third quarter earnings broadly in line with expectations and narrowed its 2024 full-year growth guidance.

The Danish pharmaceutical giant said that its net profit in the third quarter hit 27.3 billion Danish kroner ($3.92 billion), above an LSEG aggregate estimate of 26.95 billion Danish kroner.

EBIT — earnings before tax and income — came to 33.8 billion Danish kroner, also just above the LSEG forecast of 33.51 billion Danish kroner.

The company tightened its operating profit growth guidance to come in at 21% to 27%, compared to the previously expected 20% to 28%, both at constant exchange rates.

The company also narrowed its sales growth outlook for the full year 2024 to 23% to 27% from 22% to 28% at constant exchange rates.

The guidance reflected the company’s expectations for sales growth in North America and internationally, which is largely driven by volume growth of treatments based on Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), Novo Nordisk said.

“Following higher-than-expected volume growth in recent years, including GLP-1-based products such as Ozempic and Wegovy, combined with the expectation of continued volume growth and capacity limitations at some manufacturing sites, the outlook also reflects expected continued periodic supply constraints and related drug shortage notifications across a number of products and geographies,” it added.

Novo Nordisk added that it was investing in capacity both internally and externally to increase supply in the short- and long-term.

The company said sales of Wegovy were 79% higher year-on-year in the third quarter, while sales of overall GLP-1 drugs were up 14% over the same period.

Regionally, Novo Nordisk’s sales increased 22% in North America in the third quarter of 2024 compared to a year earlier. Sales to the key U.S. market were up 21% over the period, with GLP-1 volume growth up 15% in the region.

“Novo Nordisk is the market leader with 53.9% measured by total monthly prescriptions and 50.0% measured by new-to-brand prescriptions,” the company said.

The healthcare titan has weathered increasingly strong competition, but also received promising news in the weight-loss space in recent months.

Last week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said all doses of Wegovy were now available in the U.S. after previously noting that the lowest dose of Wegovy was in short supply. The news was taken as a signal that Novo Nordisk’s efforts to ramp up supplies of Wegovy and diabetes drug Ozempic are paying off.

Also in October, a study showed that Ozempic could reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, suggesting its potential to delay or prevent the memory-robbing condition.

— CNBC’s Annika Kim Constantino contributed to this story