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

Novo Nordisk hiked 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 sharply higher.

Novo hiked its 2026 full-year guidance on the back of increased expectations for 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 projected decline of between 5% and 13%.

The company’s shares rose 6.3% in morning trading in Copenhagen, climbing down from earlier gains that saw the stock rise by more than 8%.

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

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

Adjusted figures exclude a $4.2 billion non-recurring impact from a provision reversal related to the 340B Drug Pricing Program in the U.S., Novo said.

The quarter was the first period covering sales of Novo’s oral weight loss drug, the Wegovy pill, in the U.S. Sales of the pill amounted to 2.26 billion kroner, well above analyst estimates compiled by Reuters of 1.16 billion kroner.

Despite accounting for only a fraction of total sales, investors are closely watching the sales trajectory of the pills, which is widening the market for these drugs.

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

“The numbers with the pill speak for themselves,” CEO Mike Doustdar told CNBC’s Charlotte Reed, highlighting that the product was well tolerated by patients.

Doustdar said he was seeing sales of the pill growing by double digits despite competition from rival Eli Lilly’s obesity pill Foundayo that was launched in the U.S. in April.

Novo’s Wegovy brand now commands 65% of all new prescriptions in the U.S., Doustdar said, calling it a “turnaround situation.”

A concern for investors has been the extent the introduction of oral alternatives would hamper sales of the older, injectable products.

But on “pill versus a pen,” people are using both, Doustdar said. “It’s having not cannibalizations, but a synergetic effect,” he said.

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

Meanwhile, sales of diabetes drug Ozempic fell by 8%, but came in above expectations, according to LSEG.

The broader obesity care category saw adjusted constant currency sales rise by 22%.

“The strong Wegovy performance, combined with continued growth in International Operations, has led us to raise our 2026 guidance for both adjusted sales and adjusted operating…