Novo Nordisk (NVO) Q1 2026 earnings: Wegovy sales jump

Novo Nordisk raised its annual profit guidance on Wednesday, as the drugmaker said its Wegovy weight-loss pill performed better than expected in the first three months of the year, sending its shares higher.

Novo raised its guidance for the full year 2026 after an expected increase in GLP-1 product sales, saying it now expects adjusted sales and profit to contract between 4% and 12% on a currency-adjusted basis, an improvement on the previously forecast decline of between 5% and 13%.

The company’s shares rose 6.7% in morning trading in Copenhagen, paring earlier gains that saw the stock rise more than 8%.

Novo said first-quarter sales jumped 32% on a constant currency basis to 96.8 billion Danish kroner ($15.2 billion), while operating profit rose 65% to 59.6 billion kroner on a reported basis.

On an adjusted basis, sales, however, fell by 4% while profit fell by 6%.

The adjusted figures do not include a non-recurring impact of $4.2 billion from the reversal of a provision related to the 340B Drug Pricing Program in the US, Novo said.

The quarter was the first period to include sales of Novo’s oral weight-loss drug, the Wegovy pill, in the US. Sales of the pill were 2.26 billion kroner, above analyst estimates compiled by Reuters of 1.16 billion kroner.

Despite accounting for only a small part of total sales, investors are closely watching the sales channel of pills, which expands the market for these drugs.

In its earnings release on Wednesday, Novo said the Wegovy pill saw about 1.3 million prescriptions in the first three months of the year.

Novo also announced that, pending regulatory approval, the Wegovy pill will be launched outside the US during the second half of 2026.

“The numbers with the pills speak for themselves,” CEO Mike Doustdar told CNBC’s Charlotte Reed, emphasizing that the product has been tolerated by patients.

Doustdar said he sees sales of the pill growing in double digits despite competition from rival Eli Lilly’s obesity pill Foundayo which was launched in the US in April.

Novo’s Wegovy brand now accounts for 65% of all new prescriptions in the US, Doustdar said, calling it “a game changer.”

A concern among investors has been the extent to which the introduction of oral alternatives could disrupt sales of older, injectable products.

But in “pills versus pens,” people use both, Doustdar said. “It’s not cannibalism, but it has a cumulative effect,” he said.

Wegovy’s injectable drug sales jumped 12% year-on-year to 18.2 billion kronor, falling slightly short of expectations compiled by LSEG.

Meanwhile, sales of the diabetes drug Ozempic fell by 8%, but exceeded expectations, according to LSEG.

The broader obesity care category saw adjusted gross sales increase by 22%.

“Wegovy’s strong performance, combined with the continued growth of International Operations, led us to raise our 2026 guidance for both adjusted sales and adjusted operating profit,” Doustdar said in a statement accompanying the results.

But, in a note following the publication of Novo’s earnings update, equity analysts at Jefferies said Novo’s change in guidance was unlikely to have a positive impact on consensus forecasts – noting that market expectations could contract in response.

“We suspect that the fact that the company has not yet increased the bottom of the steering wheel will be seen as a negative,” they said.

Novo and its biggest rival, Eli Lillyhave been engaged in heated battles for market share in the lucrative weight-loss market, which analysts see growing to $100 billion by the end of the decade.

Lilly has overtaken Novo in the key US market for its injectable diabetes and weight-loss drugs, which have been the focus of their rivalry. Pharma companies often rely heavily on the US, where drug prices tend to be several times higher than elsewhere.

Lilly launched its diet pill, Foundayo, in early April.

Novo markets its GLP-1 drug, semaglutide, as Ozempic for type 2 diabetes and Wegovy for weight loss.

Lilly, meanwhile, last week posted sales growth for rival GLP-1 drugs Mounjaro and Zepbound of 125% and 80%, respectively. It also raised its full-year outlook after better-than-expected results as total revenue grew 56% in the quarter.

Novo’s results come as investor sentiment in the company has slowly begun to recover following the launch of the Wegovy pill in the US in early January, which analysts hailed as “one of the best launches ever.”

Lilly CEO David Ricks told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” last week that the rollout of its pill, Foundayo, will take “a quarter, not days.” The prescriptions for the first few weeks of Foundayo significantly delayed those of the Wegovy pill in a comparable period. Since Foundayo, unlike the Wegovy pill, is an entirely new drug, it will take time to develop a brand, Ricks said.

The early lead in the oral weight loss market is a welcome development for Novo, which has faced a series of setbacks over the past year, including disappointing trial results and financial projections.

Investors also questioned the viability of Novo’s pipeline, such as the next-generation drug CagriSema, which was shown to be below Zepbound in Novo’s research earlier this year. The event prompted Novo’s stock to close at a 5-year low.

Analysts have flagged the difficulty of predicting prescriptions and sales of these weight-loss drugs, since GLP-1 has become particularly important in the direct-to-consumer channel, so far, pharmaceuticals have not been so well informed.

While a head-to-head study pitting Wegovy and Foundayo pills against each other has yet to be conducted, some trials have shown that the former leads to more weight loss on average.