Novo beats Eli Lilly in Q3 sales for obesity drug

Novo Nordisk (NVO) reported better than expected sales for its weight loss therapy Wegovy with its Q3 2024 financials on Wednesday after Eli Lilly (LLY), its rival in the obesity drug market, posted a rare quarterly miss for its GLP-1 drug, Zepbound.

The Danish drugmaker’s Q3 sales for Wegovy at DKK 17.3B ($2.5B) came ahead of DKK 15.9B projected by analysts, indicating ~79% YoY growth. Last week, Novo’s (OTCPK:NONOF) U.S. rival LLY said Zepbound, launched just last year for weight loss, added $1.3B to the company’s top line, missing $1.6B in the consensus.

During the first nine months of the year, Wegovy sales reached DKK 38.3B with ~76% YoY growth on a reported basis, thanks mainly to ~50% YoY sales growth in North America, driven by higher sales volumes and partially offset by lower selling prices.

However, the company’s Q3 topline expanded ~21% YoY to DKK 71.3B, missing the DKK 72.3B projected by analysts as Wegovy’s sister drug Ozempic, indicated for diabetes, added DKK 29.8B, with ~26% YoY growth falling short of forecasts.

The company said the phasing of rebates in the U.S. in 2023 hurt its Q3 sales growth and impacted its North American operations, which added DKK 42.6B to the topline with 22% YoY growth. Meanwhile, NVO’s operating profit for the quarter grew ~26% YoY to DKK33.8B, driving its YTD operating profits to DKK91.6B with ~18%.

Novo (NVO) raised its full-year growth outlook for sales and operating profit to 23%-27% and 21%-27% on currency-adjusted terms from its previous forecasts of 22%-28% and 20%-28%, respectively.