Novo Nordisk is scaling Wegovy supply 'significantly': CFO

Novo Nordisk (NVO) shares are falling in Wednesday's pre-market session — and into the regular trading session — after the pharmaceutical giant missed second quarter revenue estimates ($3.8 billion vs. expectations of $4.1 billion) tied to Wegovy sales.

Senior health reporter Anjalee Khemlani interviews Novo Nordisk CFO Karsten Munk Knudsen, who discusses the sales figures for its landmark weight-loss drug and calling Wall Street's reaction "a blip."

"For the second quarter, we're growing the company 25% in the first half, which is top end of the industry. And, and we raised our full year outlook, top line wise, also by a couple of percentage points," Knudsen says. "Right now, demand is greater than supply for Wegovy and overall for the obesity market given the significant unmet need. We are scaling Wegovy as we speak already, significantly."

When asked about whether Novo Nordisk is considering licensing its GLP-1 products to expedite US access to them, Knudsen asserted the company is already "maxing out in terms of supply... we are really supplying as much as we are able to produce."

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This post was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.

Video transcript

Nova Noda shares off just about 5.5% in the pre market.

The company trimming its operating at profit outlook for the full year.

But it did raise its sales guidance, and that was boosted by strong demand for its weight loss drugs.

Our health care reporter, Angeli Kamlani, has been tracking this, Joining us now with more.

Hi.

Hey, Shana.

That's right.

We know that.

Of course the results are out and the company did report for 3.8 billion in revenue compared to the estimates of 4.1 billion.

And that miss came from Miss and we go sales.

And to discuss all of that we have on with us the CFO of No, no Carsten Monk News and Carson.

Really good to see you again.

Really?

Kind of a mixed picture with this quarter.

I know the stock.

You know, the the Wall Street is clearly reacting one way about it.

You've called this a blip in the quarter based on rebates, manufacturing constraints as well as competition and pricing for sales.

What can you tell us?

Uh, you know about how you think about Wall Street reacting to this Good morning.

and thank you for having me on your show.

And and yes, I called a blip and and And the starting point on our side is that we believe we deliver a really strong set of accounts for the second quarter.

We are growing the company 25% in the first half, which is the top end of the industry.

And we raised our full year outlook top line wise, also by a couple of percentage points.

So So all the performance of the company really strong and yes, then the market took our shares down, linked to even higher expectations for the go in the quarter.

And the reason why I called the blip is that the underlying trends are really strong.

And with the raise of full year outlook, then investors should be very comfortable in the performance of the company.

You've also pulled back on label expansion for we go.

That's just another hit for the product itself.

I know that there's also, you know, a delay on that respect.

How is that going to impact longer term revenue?

And how should we be thinking about that for will be sales Well, right now, demand is greater than supply for Vigo at all for the obesity market.

Given the significant unmet needs, we are scaling Vigo as we speak already significantly so we have.

We have doubled the number of doses we are supplying into the market compared to the beginning of the year.

So significant scaling taking place.

And now we have launched in 12 markets outside North America.

So we are gradually rolling out and the fact that we re our capacity constraint means that the delay on the heart failure data, which are really compelling, does not have any material impact because we had a dialogue with the and based on that dialogue, we have decided to pull our file order to have additional data based on hard end points from some of our other trials.

So we will be resubmitting the file in the beginning of next year and it's not going to have any impact on our top line given the current situation.

And we have also got new concerns from North Carolina asking the US Health Department to licence your products, the GP one products in particular, in order to help ease the constraints on access and help bring more affordable options to market.

I know you've already been facing in the compounding problem in light of the fact that you're still facing shortages.

Does this sound like an option that no would be willing to consider?

So first of all, this really starts with the premise that the innovation generated by researchers years ago are really making a significant difference for the large unmet need and the large number of patients suffering from obesity and that granted us of patent protection according to the general rules.

And we are maxing out in terms of supplies.

So we are really supplying as much as we are able to produce.

And no, we are not interested in licencing.

And even if we did the time to construct any alternative measures would not be faster than what we are already doing.

In terms of constructing, there is no capacity.

So we don't believe that that is an appropriate way forward.

Yeah, definitely.

And then finally, you do have a another area where the US government is looking at you.

And that is on the, uh, pulling leir, the insulin product off the US market.

I know it's been down really quarter over quarter and year over year, down 31% there.

So what is the message to lawmakers?

I know Novos had a a meeting set up with them.

First of all, continuity of care is a key priority for known.

Worse so patients relying on known worse medicines for their outcomes is a key priority for this company, so we don't take any portfolio choices lightly.

In the case of L in the US, we are in a situation where the product has been marginalised over the last 510 years through aggressive price demands from payers.

So pricing has really come down.

Market share has come down, so the products market share is now below 10% in the basal segment and then with a lot of other products available in the segment, our choice was to discontinue the product in the US in order to use our resources both in the market and supply chain wise even more productively.

So this allocation means that we will be able to reach even more patients than the alternative, and we work with the portfolio.

So we have a number of alternatives in our own portfolio and competition also offers products for that market segment.

And I would say, finally, Levi is is out of patent.

So so now, now, now, now you spoke about the licence.

So?

So if if anyone would would be up for producing Levi, then it's It's It's off patent.

Definitely.

And and to your point, the numbers make sense and tell the story.

We'll have to leave it there, Carson.

But really a pleasure speaking with you again.

Thank you so much for joining us today, Carson Muky CFO of Nova Nordisk.

Thank you for having me.