The soaring popularity of weight-loss drugs Ozempic and Wigovy has pushed parent company Novo Nordisk’s valuation past the $5 trillion threshold, according to the report.
The Danish drug company, which originally sold the drug as a treatment for diabetes, was valued at $506 billion. According to CNBCanalyzed data from the London Stock Exchange Group.
Novo Nordisk shares rose nearly 5% to nearly $114 after the company reported better-than-expected quarterly results on Wednesday.
The soaring share price has helped the company overtake luxury goods giant LVMH to become Europe’s most valuable company.
According to the company’s latest financial report, sales for the fourth quarter were $9.61 billion, up 37% from a year earlier, compared to the $9.08 billion expected by analysts surveyed by LSEG.
Earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) rose 57% to 26.8 billion, compared to the forecast of 24.9 billion.
Novo Nordisk expects sales to rise 17% to 25% and operating profit to rise 19% to 27% this year as demand for two medicines containing the same active ingredient soars.
Novo said it would increase supply of Wegoby in the United States and also promised to compete with rival Eli Lilly, which has been successful in marketing its weight-loss drug Munjaro.
Novo and Lilly drugs are the most effective treatments for weight loss approved to date.
Lilly’s presence in the field has grown since it won approval in the UK, European Union and US for its powerful obesity drug Zepbound in November.
Novo CEO Lars Fluergaard Jorgensen told Reuters the company was closely monitoring Lilly.
“I think they’re probably in a situation like us where they’re building capacity and having to look at strategies on a market-by-market basis,” he told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday.
“I’m sure they’ll be watching what we’re doing and we’ll be watching what they’re doing. That’s how competition works.”
Jorgensen has previously welcomed competition, saying there is room for multiple drugs to enter the fast-growing obesity drug market, which analysts predict will be worth more than $100 billion by 2030. He said.
U.S. prescriptions for Zepbound have skyrocketed since the drug hit U.S. shelves in early December, to 37,000 in the week ending Jan. 19, according to data from healthcare data companies IQVIA and JPMorgan. reached.
However, Wegovy’s total number of visits for the week was 92,000, down from its peak of 135,000 in May of last year.
The big hurdle is meeting the intense demand.
Eli Lilly declined to say how much it will produce this year for Seppbound and Maunjaro, as it expands its plant in North Carolina, outsources to contract manufacturers and builds a factory in Germany.
U.S. pharmacies are reporting Zepbound shortages this month, but the company predicts that will end in February.
The Danish drugmaker said Wednesday that deliveries of low doses in the United States have more than doubled compared to recent months, the first sign that the shortage is easing after a year of efforts to increase production. did.
Even so, periodic shortages are expected.
with post wire
