COPENHAGEN (Reuters) -Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk on Wednesday lifted its sales and operating profit forecasts for the year on the back of strong first-half earnings, but its shares fell as much as 10% following the announcement.
Novo Nordisk now expects sales growth of 12-16% at constant exchange rates, up from a previous estimate of 10-14%. It sees operating profit up 11-15%, versus an earlier estimate of 9-13%.
It was not immediately clear why the shares fell.
“We are very pleased with the sales growth in the first half of 2022. The growth is driven by increasing demand for GLP-1 based diabetes treatments, especially Ozempic,” Chief Executive Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen said in a statement.
The company also said it expected to make all dose strengths of its new obesity drug Wegovy available in the United States “towards the end of 2022”, following supply issues on the back of heavy demand since the drug was launched last year.
Novo reported second-quarter operating profit of 18.4 billion Danish crowns ($2.50 billion), just above the 18.3 billion forecast by analysts, according to Refinitiv data. The company had initially planned to announce results on Thursday.
($1 = 7.3474 Danish crowns)
(Reporting by Nikolaj SkydsgaardEditing by David Goodman and Mark Potter)
