COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Shares in Novo Nordisk jumped on Friday after the firm lifted its sales and operating profit guidance for the year on the back of forecast-beating first-quarter earnings, driven by strong sales of its newer diabetes and obesity treatments.
Novo Nordisk now expects sales growth of 10-14% in local currencies, up from a previous estimate of 6-10%. It sees operating profit up 9-13%, versus an earlier forecast of 4-8%.
Shares in Novo rose 6.5% at market open.
“We are very pleased with the sales growth in the first three months of 2022 which is driven by increasing demand for our GLP-1-based treatments,” Chief Executive Lars Jorgensen said in a statement, referring to Novo’s newer diabetes and obesity drugs.
Operating profit in the first quarter came in at 19 billion Danish crowns ($2.69 billion), above the 17.2 billion crowns estimated by analysts, Refinitiv data showed.
Novo also said a contract manufacturer filling syringes for its promising Wegovy obesity drug had resumed commercial production, paving the way for Novo to make the drug fully available in the United States in the second half of 2022.
The contract manufacturer had temporarily halted deliveries and manufacturing in December after issues relating to good manufacturing practice.
Novo will also expand its share repurchase programme by 2 billion Danish crowns to a total of 24 billion.
($1 = 7.0576 Danish crowns)
(Reporting by Stine Jacobsen and Nikolaj Skydsgaard; Editing by David Goodman and Mark Potter)
