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Novo Nordisk is feeling the results of elevated competitors within the weight reduction and diabetes remedy area, because the Danish drugmaker reported lower-than-expected gross sales for blockbuster drug Wegovy (semaglutide) within the second quarter.
Shares within the firm had been down 5.7% at market open on 7 August in comparison with the pre-announcement market shut. Novo has a market cap of $580.3bn and is Europe’s Most worthy listed firm.
Elevated gross sales of Wegovy, the first-to-market weight-loss drug, generated DKr11.66bn ($1.71bn), under the $1.98bn determine forecast by analysts in a company-compiled consensus, as per Reuters.
GlobalData managing analyst Sara Reci instructed Pharmaceutical Expertise provide shortages have been one of many main causes for weakened Wegovy gross sales. A number of doses of the drug had been on the FDA’s drug scarcity checklist since early 2022 as Novo struggled to maintain up with the hovering demand for its GLP-1 receptor agonist.
As per a 6 August replace, though 4 out of 5 marketed doses are actually obtainable, Wegovy’s lowest dose stays on the shortages checklist.
Novo Nordisk North America operations EVP Doug Langa mentioned in a 7 August convention name to traders that the corporate remains to be “dynamically managing” dose caps.
Reci mentioned: “Provides have been restricted to make sure that sufferers who start remedy can proceed with out disruption. These constraints have created a bottleneck in Wegovy’s market efficiency.”
However, Wegovy gross sales had been nonetheless up 55% from the identical interval final 12 months as robust demand for the drug persists. Wegovy is authorized as a weight reduction drug for sufferers who meet the label standards. Novo markets a special model of semaglutide as Ozempic to enhance glycaemic management and cut back cardiovascular threat in sufferers with kind 2 diabetes. Ozempic generated $4.2bn in Q2 gross sales.
Web gross sales for Novo, one of many first to galvanise the multi-billion metabolic illness market, reached $9.95bn for Q2. Working revenue elevated by 18% in native forex, although it was impacted by an $833m impairment associated to the Part III failure of power kidney disease-associated hypertension candidate ocedurenone.
Citing provide constraints, the corporate minimize its working revenue development forecast this 12 months to between 20% and 28%, down from 22% to 30% as beforehand acknowledged.
Novo mentioned it had “capability limitations at some manufacturing websites”, and that the outlook displays “periodic provide constraints and associated drug scarcity notifications” throughout a spread of merchandise, as per the Q2 earnings report.
Gross sales are anticipated to extend from the unique steerage of 19%–27% to 22%–28% at fixed alternate charges (CER). The corporate mentioned it’s making efforts to extend provide, together with investments in inside and exterior capability.
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Reci acknowledged: “Novo is assured in its skill to handle [supply issues] and improve Wegovy manufacturing, anticipating stronger development within the second half of 2024.”
Together with provide bottlenecks, Novo’s decrease gross sales are resulting from its flagship cardiometabolic product now not possessing a market monopoly.
Reci mentioned: “The launch of Zepbound within the US market in December 2023 has launched important competitors for Wegovy. Medical trials have demonstrated that Zepbound is more practical than Wegovy, with sufferers experiencing a 21% discount in physique weight over 72 weeks, in comparison with a 15% discount over 68 weeks for these on Wegovy. These findings make Zepbound a extra enticing choice for healthcare suppliers and sufferers in search of efficient weight reduction options.”
Eli Lilly’s Zepbound (tirzepatide) recorded higher-than-expected gross sales in Q1 this 12 months, tabling $517m for the US drugmaker. The drug is forecast to generate gross sales of $27.2bn by 2030, in line with GlobalData’s Pharma Intelligence Centre. Wegovy, in the meantime, might not attain the identical lofty top, with gross sales predicted to get to $18.7bn by the identical 12 months.
GlobalData is the mother or father firm of Pharmaceutical Expertise.
“Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy gross sales weaken as Eli Lilly’s Zepbound exerts strain” was initially created and printed by Pharmaceutical Expertise, a GlobalData owned model.
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