Novo beats Q1 estimates, raises full-year guidance
Novo Nordisk rose in premarket trading after it reported first quarter earnings results that beat Wall Street expectations and raised its full year guidance on demand for its new weight loss pill.
For the first three months of 2026, the drugmaker reported:
Sales of 96.8 billion Danish kroner ($15.1 billion). That was significantly ahead of the DKK 70.8 billion ($11.1 billion) analysts polled by FactSet were expecting, though the headline figure was boosted by a ~$4.2 billion one-off from a provision reversal related to the 340B Drug Pricing program.
Revenue included DKK2.26 billion ($353.6 million) in sales of its new Wegovy pill, more than double the DKK1.1 billion ($172.5 million) analysts were penciling in.
Adjusted operating profit of DKK32.8 billion ($5.15 billion).
For the full year 2026, the company now expects:
Sales and operating profit to fall by between 4% and 12%, having previously forecasted a a 5% to 13% drop.
Going into the report investors were eager for signs of how the weight loss pill, which came to market January 5, is performing. Novo, which was the first to market GLP-1 injections, has lost ground in the past year to Eli Lilly.
But early signs that its Wegovy pill is off to a strong start will buoy investors. The pill has been prescribed 2 million times since launch, Novo said, “which marks the strongest-ever GLP-1 volume launch in the US.”
The higher-than-expected sales for the pill were thanks to “pre-launch pipeline fill with wholesalers and telehealth partners,” Novo said.