People walk past a sign for Novo Nordisk’s annual general meeting at the entrance to the venue in Copenhagen, Denmark, March 26, 2026.
Tom Little | Reuters
Novo Nordisk hiked annual profit guidance on Wednesday, as the pharmaceutical group revealed its blockbuster weight-loss drugs performed better than expected in the first three months of the year.
The Danish drugmaker said first-quarter sales jumped 32% on a constant currency basis to reach 96.8 billion Danish kroner ($15.2 billion), soaring above an analyst consensus of 71.3 billion kroner compiled by FactSet. Operating profit surged 65% year-on-year to 59.6 billion kroner, also hugely beating expectations of 31.7 billion kroner.
On an adjusted basis, however, sales fell 4% and profits dropped 6%.
Adjusted figures exclude a $4.2 billion non-recurring impact from a provision reversal related to the 340B Drug Pricing Program in the U.S., Novo said.
The quarter was the first period covering sales of Novo’s oral weight loss drug, the Wegovy pill, in the U.S. Sales of the pill amounted to 2.26 billion kroner, well above analyst estimates compiled by Reuters of 1.16 billion kroner.
Despite accounting for only a fraction of total sales, investors are closely watching the sales trajectory of the pills, which is widening the market for these drugs.
In its earnings release on Wednesday, Novo said the Wegovypill, which saw around 1.3 million prescriptions in the first three months of the year, had been the strongest-ever GLP-1 volume launch in the U.S.
However, sales of its injectable Wegovy drug jumped 12% year-on-year to 18.2 billion kronor, falling slightly short of expectations compiled by LSEG.
Meanwhile, sales of diabetes drug Ozempic fell by 8%, but came in above expectations, according to LSEG.
The broader obesity care category saw adjusted constant currency sales rise by 22%.
Novo hiked its 2026 full-year guidance on the back of increased expectations for GLP-1 product sales, saying it now expects adjusted sales to contract by -4% to -12% on a currency-adjusted basis. Adjusted operating profit growth is now expected to fall in the range of -4% to -12%.
“The 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,” CEO Mike Doustdar said in a statement alongside the results.
Novo and its chief rival, Eli Lilly, have been locked in a fierce battle for market share in the lucrative weight-loss market, which analysts see growing to $100 billion by the end of the decade.
Lilly has overtaken Novo in the key U.S. market for its injectable diabetes and weight loss drugs, which has been the focus of their rivalry. Pharma companies typically rely heavily on the U.S., where prices for branded drugs are often several times higher than elsewhere.
Lilly launched its own weight loss pill, Foundayo, in early April.
Novo sells its GLP-1 drug, semaglutide, as Ozempic for type 2 diabetes and Wegovy for weight loss.
Lilly, meanwhile, last week posted sales growth for rival GLP-1 drugs Mounjaro and Zepbound of 125% and 80%, respectively. It also hiked its full-year outlook on the back of the better-than-expected results as total revenue grew 56% in the quarter.
Wegovy pill drives sentiment
Novo’s results come as investor sentiment around the company had slowly begun to recover following the launch of the Wegovy pill in the U.S. in early January, which analysts hailed as “one of the best launches ever.”
Lilly CEO David Ricks told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” last week that the ramp-up of its pill, Foundayo, was going to take “quarters, not days.” Prescriptions for the first few weeks of Foundayo significantly lagged those of the Wegovy pill in the comparable period. As Foundayo, unlike Wegovy pill, is a completely new medicine, it will take time to build the brand, Ricks said.
The early lead in the oral weight loss market is a welcome boost to Novo, which has faced a series of setbacks over the past year, including disappointing trial results and financial outlooks.
Investors have also questioned the commercial viability of Novo’s pipeline, such as its next-generation drug CagriSema, which was shown to be inferior to Zepbound in Novo’s own study earlier this year. The event prompted Novo stock to close at a new 5-year low.
Analysts have flagged difficulties in predicting prescriptions and sales of these weight loss drugs, as GLP-1s have come to be uniquely important in the direct-to-consumer channel, which until now, pharmaceuticals hadn’t had much exposure to.
It is also not clear to what extent the introduction of oral alternatives would hamper sales of the older, injectable products, complicating predictions.
While a head-to-head study pitting the Wegovy pill and Foundayo against each other has yet to be conducted, other trials have shown the former to lead to more weight loss on average.
About The Author
