Novo Nordisk, the Danish pharmaceutical firm behind Ozempic and Wegovy, capped off a considerably turbulent 2024, reporting revenue and income on Wednesday that comfortably beat Wall Road expectations. However the drugmaker mentioned it anticipated gross sales progress to sluggish in 2025, as competitors will increase.
Novo Nordisk retains its title as Europe’s most dear firm, however its share value has dropped about 40 p.c because it peaked final June as analysts fearful about uncertainty in demand for weight problems medication and the efficiency of recent medication in trials.
“Final yr was a story of two halves,” mentioned Emily Discipline, an analyst at Barclays. The primary half of 2024 supplied “numerous total pleasure.”
However then knowledge urged that prescriptions for weight problems medication have been rising slowly in the US, and some trial outcomes for medication within the firm’s pipeline got here in decrease than anticipated, Ms. Discipline added. President Trump’s election additionally weighed on pharmaceutical firms generally amid potential modifications to well being care coverage.
There’s been “numerous uncertainty” she mentioned as buyers grew extra involved about whether or not gross sales of weight problems medication may actually meet the business’s lofty expectations of a market bigger than $100 billion within the coming a long time. Novo Nordisk’s predominant competitor is the American drugmaker Eli Lilly, which additionally sells weight problems medication.
On Wednesday, Novo Nordisk mentioned its income jumped 25 p.c final yr to 290 billion Danish kroner, or $40.6 billion, pushed by rising gross sales in the US, and reported revenue of greater than 100 billion Danish kroner.
It expects gross sales progress of 16 to 24 p.c in 2025, lower than the earlier yr, due to rising competitors and pricing pressures. However the firm mentioned it was nonetheless seeing sturdy demand for weight problems therapies.
“The variety of individuals dwelling with weight problems could be very, very massive, so this can be a market we’re simply beginning to serve,” Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen, the drugmaker’s chief govt, mentioned on a name with reporters on Wednesday. The 2025 steerage assumes “a fairly important ramp” in gross sales in the US, he added.
The corporate’s share value rose about 5 p.c on Wednesday.
Novo Nordisk has been repeatedly thrust into the limelight in current weeks by Mr. Trump and his new administration.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has mentioned he doesn’t like weight problems medication, is Mr. Trump’s nominee for well being secretary, a submit that may give him some energy over entry to the medication. And final month, Mr. Trump threatened tariffs on Denmark, Novo Nordisk’s dwelling nation, in a spat over Greenland. Novo Nordisk producers a few of its medication in the US, however it nonetheless imports the lively pharmaceutical ingredient, semaglutide, for a few of its hottest injectable medication.
Karsten Munk Knudsen, the corporate’s chief monetary officer, mentioned in an interview on Wednesday that the corporate had numerous optimism for 2025. However “we’re not naïve by way of the whole lot that’s occurring round us,” he added. “Geopolitics might be extra risky at the moment as in comparison with what it’s been up to now few years.”
Prior to now few weeks, the threats and imposition of tariffs have created numerous uncertainty for enterprise leaders across the globe. Though Mr. Trump postponed tariffs on items from Canada and Mexico this week, he proceeded with further tariffs on Chinese language items and warned that tariffs on the European Union would “positively occur.”
Novo Nordisk started this yr recovering from the disappointing trial outcomes of its next-generation weight reduction drug CagriSema. After a late-stage trial barely missed expectations, the corporate’s share value plunged 20 p.c on a single day in late December. However Mr. Jorgensen mentioned the corporate remained “assured within the biology of CagriSema.”
Novo Nordisk additionally mentioned that it anticipated to file for the primary regulatory approval of CagriSema in early 2026. Final month, outcomes for an early-stage trial of a brand new drug, amycretin, carried out effectively, pushing up the corporate’s shares.