NNC-06620419

Novo Nordisk had a good 2024, but this year might be less stellar. The Danish company’s 2024 sales increased 26% from the year before at constant currency, it said Wednesday , but its growth in 2025 is only expected to come in at 16% to 24%. Global Wegovy sales increased 86% year-on-year, the company said, but there are indications that this growth might be stagnating. Jefferies analysts wrote in a Wednesday note that fourth-quarter Wegovy sales came in 2% below consensus, at Danish Krone 19.9 billion ($2.8 billion). CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen pointed out that Novo is reaching up to two million obese patients in the US out of a population of around 55 million, so there is room to grow. However, a high-dose form of Wegovy also delivered underwhelming results in the clinic recently. Growing Wegovy will require a boost in manufacturing. The company intends to spend DKK 65 billion on production in 2025 compared to DKK 45 billion last year as the three factories it bought from Catalent come online. Overall, the company’s performance in 2024 was solid, with sales coming in at DKK 290.4 billion ($40.5 billion) and operating profit jumping by 25% versus 2023 to DKK 128.3 billion ($17.9 billion), both at constant exchange rates. Novo’s stock is up 3% on the Danish stock exchange. Novo also said it would not seek approval for CagriSema this year, instead submitting it in the first quarter of 2026. The company said it wants to get its supply chain for the drug in place before going to regulators. The combination therapy, which disappointed in its pivotal obesity trial in December , has another major Phase 3 readout coming in the next few weeks, in patients with both obesity and diabetes. A Novo spokesperson declined to give expectations for the weight loss it expects to see here, but analysts are targeting a figure of around 15%. Novo remains confident in the product despite the December letdown. Jørgensen said on a media call that CagriSema “compares to the best weight loss agents out there.” A suite of Phase 3 trials of CagriSema in diabetes is also expected to complete this year, and the spokesperson told Endpoints News that plans to seek approval in this indication will likely be revealed at the same time as the data. More immediately, Novo will file its oral form of semaglutide for obesity. This is already sold as Rybelsus for diabetes, and the company will seek to add obesity to the product’s US label “within the next few months.” Elsewhere, the drugmaker is trying a new tack in obesity, unveiling a new triple agonist. A Phase 1 trial of the subcutaneous GLP-1, GIP and glucagon agonist, codenamed NN9662 or NNC0662-0419, kicked off in December and will last for about nine months. The most advanced “triple-G” candidate in development is Eli Lilly’s retatrutide. This is already in pivotal Phase 3 trials, with data due next year. Editor’s note: This article was updated to correct the Q4 sales of Wegovy. A previous version stated them at DKK 198.7 billion.