Novo Nordisk tumbles as Wegovy sales miss, trial setback overshadow raised outlook

Investing.com -- Novo Nordisk (CSE:NOVOb) (NYSE: NVO) hiked its full-year guidance, saying annual sales and operating profit should decline less than previously expected as demand for its weight-loss drugs continues unabated.

But shares fell 6% in U.S. trading Tuesday after the company’s new Wegovy pill missed sales estimates and an experimental next-generation weight-loss drug delivered disappointing study results. The company’s Copenhagen-listed shares fell 4.2% by 07:44 GMT after the market opened on Wednesday.

The Danish drugmaker now expects adjusted sales and operating profit to fall by up to 6% at constant exchange rates this year, an improvement from its prior forecast of a decline of 4% to 12% for both measures.

Sales of the oral version of Wegovy came in at 3.2 billion Danish kroner in the second quarter, equivalent to about $500 million, falling short of the 3.3 billion kroner analysts surveyed by FactSet had expected. The injectable form of Wegovy generated 19.48 billion kroner in sales during the quarter.

Novo also said its experimental drug CagriSema failed to match the blood-sugar-lowering effect of Eli Lilly’s (NYSE: LLY) tirzepatide in a new study of people with Type 2 diabetes.

In the trial, CagriSema was noninferior to tirzepatide on the primary endpoint of weight loss, with patients losing 15.2% of their body weight versus 15.8% for tirzepatide. However, on the second primary endpoint — reduction in HbA1c, a measure of blood sugar control, CagriSema fell short, delivering a 1.9% reduction compared with 2.2% for tirzepatide.

"We expected CagriSema to show non-inferiority on both primary endpoints, but importantly, for Zepbound to numerically outperform on both co-primary endpoints. So, today’s result came in less favorable for CagriSema than expected," Wolfe Research analyst Alexandria Hammond said in a note.

Analysts had anticipated a guidance increase from Novo Nordisk, given how Wegovy has driven a surge in the company’s sales since the FDA approved it as a weight-loss treatment in 2021.

Total adjusted sales for the second quarter rose 7% year-over-year to 78.49 billion Danish kroner. Net profit fell 21% to 20.99 billion kroner, while adjusted operating profit, the metric most closely watched by investors, rose 11% to 33.39 billion kroner.

You May Also Be Interested In

• First Solar raised at Baird as Section 232 clears path for bookings
• Dan Niles sees Intel foundry win as imminent amid $15B stock offering
• Riot, NIQ surge, On Holding tumbles premarket