Exceeded expectations

Novo Nordisk: Successful year thanks to Ozempic and Wegovy

Good business with its weight-loss and diabetes drugs Ozempic and Wegovy also gave the Danish pharmaceutical group Novo Nordisk a boost last year. The Group performed better than expected. Management has issued a rather cautious forecast for 2025.

In 2024, sales climbed by 25 (currency-adjusted 26) percent year-on-year to a good 290 billion Danish kroner (38.9 billion euros), as the Group announced in Bagsvaerd on Wednesday. At the bottom line, profit rose by 21 percent to 101 billion Danish kroner. The Group thus exceeded analysts' expectations, with sales of the much-noticed weight-loss product Wegovy in line with forecasts.

"In 2025, we will continue to focus on commercialization, our early and advanced research pipeline and the expansion of production capacity," said CEO Jørgensen according to the press release.

Sales growth of up to 26 percent
NovoNordisk expects sales to grow by 16 to 24 percent at constant exchange rates in the new year - which would be 2 percentage points less than in 2024, even at the peak. Operating profit is expected to increase by 19 to 27 percent at constant exchange rates in 2025. Last year, NovoNordisk earned around 128 billion kroner on a constant currency basis, 26 percent more than in the previous year.