Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk (NVO) reported strong fourth-quarter profits due to a surge in demand for its obesity drug. The explosive success of Novo's weight-loss drugs Wigoby and Ozempic led to a 36% year-on-year increase in sales.
Novo Nordisk's strong performance has propelled it to a market valuation of more than $500 billion, making it the second European company to achieve this milestone.
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Editor's note: This article was written by angel smith
video transcript
Sheena Smith: Novo Nordisk sparks optimism with earnings forecast. It could grow by up to 26% this year. Due to the success of weight loss drugs, the market value has soared to over $500 billion. Wegovy and diabetes drug Ozempic.
Now, the company's CFO told Yahoo Finance early this morning, “The plan for 2024 is to continue the incredible growth that we saw in 2023. It's the same growth drivers, about the same size of growth.” ” he said. We are currently considering this for 2024. ” Ozempic and Wegovy, as well as several other drugs, have actually been key growth drivers for the stock.
And, Brad, I think these results demonstrate exactly why Novo Nordisk was named Yahoo Finance's 2023 Company of the Year. Its market capitalization is now on track to exceed $500 billion. He is the second European company to reach this milestone. But again, for the demand, his Wegovy craze, Novo Nordisk is still having a hard time figuring out exactly what that demand is.
Brad Smith: Yeah. Demand creation is happening and we have been tracking organic growth. It's certainly permeated across their business, and it's really come into focus in this most recent quarter, especially in the diabetes and obesity care space here. It increased by about 38%. They point out that this is primarily driven by GLP-1 diabetes sales growth. Of course it's a weight loss drug.
The growth rate of this sector is approximately 48%. A subsegment of GLP-1. And bariatric care grew 147% in this most recent quarter.
Sheena Smith: It's pretty surprising to see this number. We know the company is making further investments to ramp up manufacturing to meet demand. Again, with a forecast like this, given the fact that the demand for these weight loss and obesity products doesn't seem to be slowing down at all, you really think the stock is about at a ceiling for at least the next 12 months. I am. drugs.
And this is a theme heard in many earnings calls dating back to last quarter. We'll continue to hear from many consumer staples companies this quarter.
Also, please pay attention to Yahoo Finance. Our own Anjali Khemlani spoke with his CFO at Novohe Nordisk. Next he is scheduled to do that interview in an hour.