It has been a rocky few months for Novo Nordisk.
Prescription information from IQVIA suggests Novo’s weight problems drug Wegovy is shedding floor to rival Zepbound from Eli Lilly. Wegovy’s potential successor, CagriSema, got here up brief of investor expectations in a carefully watched Section 3 trial. Novo’s inventory has fallen greater than 20% over the past 12 months, and folks feared issues would get even worse when the corporate launched fourth-quarter earnings and its 2025 outlook on Wednesday.
As a substitute, Novo beat fourth-quarter expectations and supplied a gross sales progress forecast between 16% and 24% – in keeping with the 20% Wall Road was on the lookout for. Novo’s inventory rose greater than 4% on Wednesday.
In an interview with CNBC, Novo Chief Government Officer Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen dismissed issues that Novo is falling behind Lilly.
“We’re fairly assured that as we transfer into the 12 months and we’ll be supplying an increasing number of of the starter doses, we will see a pleasant step up in our quantity and serving an increasing number of sufferers,” Jorgensen stated. “And the steering now we have given for this 12 months, you possibly can say, testifies to an underlying important ramp in our enterprise. So we’re fairly assured each within the demand out there and likewise our means to provide and compete in that market.”
Jonathan Raa | Nurphoto | Getty Pictures
Individuals taking Wegovy begin off on the bottom dose – or the starter dose – then work their method as much as stronger formulations so their our bodies can get used to the drug. At instances, Novo has restricted the quantity of starter doses it shipped as a result of it struggled to make sufficient of the drug and wished to verify individuals who had been already on the remedy may keep on it.
Novo’s 2025 gross sales steering implies a 30% enhance within the variety of sufferers taking one of many firm’s GLP-1 medicine, resembling Ozempic, the corporate stated on its earnings name.
The corporate additionally tried to reassure traders about CagriSema’s effectiveness. Jorgensen stated some individuals misplaced weight in a short time, and one other group misplaced weight repeatedly, exhibiting no signal of stopping by the point the trial ended, so they could want longer therapy.
“I am very assured within the efficiency of the biology now we have right here,” he stated.
Persons are watching an earlier-stage therapy – amycretin – even nearer. That experimental drug not too long ago confirmed promising leads to a part 1b/2a trial.
Jorgensen stated Novo is speaking to the FDA about presumably transferring straight to a part three trial.