Shares of Novo Nordisk (NYSE:NVO) jumped on Wednesday after it said sales of its blockbuster Wegovy weight loss drug were seen improving in the second half of the year as the availability of copycat compounded drugs is phased out.
The Danish pharmaceutical giant reported lower-than-expected first-quarter sales of its flagship obesity drug and trimmed its full-year sales growth forecast as alternative versions of the drug have eaten away at its U.S. market share.
However, CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen told the media that the end of a drug shortage ruling by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would allow sales to pick up again later in the year.
“Compounders took a part of our business away,” Jørgensen told reporters.
“We now expect that compounding will be knocked off, so to say, and we get that business growth going forward,” he added.
The drugmaker on Wednesday reported a better-than-expected rise in first-quarter net profit of 29.03 billion Danish kroner ($4.4 billion U.S.) for the three-month period to the end of March, ahead of the 27.8 billion Danish kroner forecast by analysts in an LSEG poll.
Sales of the company’s popular Wegovy obesity drug rose 83% annually at constant exchange rates to 17.36 billion Danish kroner, coming in slightly below the 18.51 billion Danish kroner anticipated by analysts.
Shares of Novo Nordisk rose $2.06, or 3.1%, to $68.35, first thing Wednesday.
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