Novo Nordisk posts 5-percent rise in Q1

Novo Nordisk announced Wednesday that first-quarter sales rose 5 percent year-over-year to 28.5 billion Danish kroner ($4.2 billion), above analyst estimates of 27.9 billion kroner ($4.1 billion), boosted by sales of diabetes and obesity therapies. Meanwhile, profit in the three-month period climbed 7 percent to 10.2 billion kroner ($1.5 billion), topping analyst forecasts of 8.9 billion kroner ($1.3 billion). Shares in the company increased as much as 7 percent on the news.

CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen said "with the performance in the first three months, we are well on track towards our targets for 2017." The executive, who assumed his role in January, noted that "sales were driven by our new, innovative products within diabetes and obesity care, and we are seeing the effects of our cost control initiatives." In the quarter, sales of Victoza jumped 25 percent year-on-year to 5.8 billion kroner ($851 million), with revenue from Tresiba surging 174 percent to 1.5 billion kroner ($220 million).

Novo Nordisk noted that overall quarterly sales of insulin products lifted 9 percent to 16.4 billion kroner ($2.4 billion), with NovoRapid generating revenue of 5.3 billion kroner ($778 million), representing an increase of 15 percent. Meanwhile, sales in the drugmaker's biopharmaceuticals division slipped 24 percent year-over-year to 4.7 billion kroner ($690 million). The company explained that the decline was in part due to the launch of a generic version of Vagifem in the US in the fourth quarter of 2016, as well as a knock-on effect from US rebate adjustments in the first quarter of last year.

For the current year, Novo Nordisk indicated that it now expects sales growth of up to 3 percent, while operating profit is expected to range between a decline of 1 percent and a rise of 3 percent, both in local currency terms. The company had previously forecast 2017 sales ranging from a decline of 1 percent to growth of 4 percent, while operating profit is expected to range between a decline of 2 percent and a rise of 3 percent.

"When we lift the lower end of the range it is mainly because now we are four months into the year and we have not been exposed to any change in the political environment, hence the risk is lower," Jorgensen commented.