By Dominic Chopping
Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk said it will continue to hold back some lower-strength starter doses of its Wegovy obesity treatment in the U.S. as it seeks to safeguard supplies for patients already using the drug amid surging demand.
The reduction in supply of lower-dose strengths was flagged in May and in an advisory to U.S customers Novo Nordisk said it expects many patients will have difficulty filling lower-dose Wegovy prescriptions through September.
Amid the popularity of Wegovy, Novo Nordisk’s diabetes drug Ozempic has also seen soaring demand, with patients using it “off label” to treat obesity as it shares the same active ingredient as Wegovy, leading to shortages of the drug among patients who use it for treating their diabetes.
Novo Nordisk reported Thursday that following higher-than-expected volume growth in recent years for Ozempic and Wegovy, combined with the expectation of continued volume growth and capacity limitations at some manufacturing sites, it expects continued periodic supply constraints and related drug shortage notifications across a number of products and geographies.
“Novo Nordisk is investing in internal and external capacity to increase supply both short and long term. While supply capacity for Wegovy is gradually being expanded, the supply of the lower dose strengths in the U.S. will remain restricted to safeguard continuity of care,” it said.
To avoid stimulating further demand, the company has paused some key Wegovy promotional efforts and it is closely managing Wegovy shipments to wholesalers in the U.S. to create a steady level of inventory.
Wegovy is currently available in the U.S., Denmark, Norway and Germany, and while it is approved for use in the U.K. it isn’t yet available there.
Novo Nordisk raised its full-year guidance Thursday thanks to the demand for Ozempic and Wegovy, and said net profit in the second quarter rose to 19.43 billion Danish kroner ($2.86 billion) from DKK13.32 billion as overall group sales rose 32% on year to DKK54.3 billion.
Those figures were shy of the DKK20.63 billion net profit and DKK55.47 billion sales forecast by analysts in a FactSet poll, with the miss mainly due to insulin sales and the company’s rare diseases business.
Wegovy sales soared to DKK7.52 billion in the quarter from DKK1.18 billion in the same quarter last year.
The company now expects 2023 sales growth of 27%-33% from 24%-30% previously, and operating profit growth of 31%-37% from 28%-34% previously, in local currencies.
Novo Nordisk earlier this week said a trial of Wegovy showed that it not only helped people lose weight but also reduced their risk of suffering heart attacks, strokes and cardiovascular deaths by 20%, sending shares 17% higher on the day. The popularity of the drug has turned Novo Nordisk into Europe’s second-most valuable company by market capitalization, behind luxury giant LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton.
It said Thursday that to secure liquidity for the Novo Nordisk B shares on Nasdaq Copenhagen and American depositary receipts on the New York Stock Exchange and bring price levels in line with market practice, it has decided to split the units in a two-for-one ratio.
Write to Dominic Chopping at [email protected]
Read the full article here
