Novo Nordisk Doubles 2025 Obesity Franchise Sales Target to Over $3.72 Billion Amid Strong Wegovy Demand

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With supply issues expected to end soon, Novo Nordisk has high hopes for its newly launched obesity drug Wegovy (semaglutide). In fact, the company has more than doubled the sales target for its rapidly growing obesity franchise by 2025.

On Thursday this week, Novo Nordisk stated that by 2025, the company's annual sales in the obesity business will exceed 25 billion Danish kroner (approximately US$3.72 billion). Previously, Novo Nordisk's target was 11.35 billion Danish kroner (approximately US$1.69 billion), based on the 5.7 billion Danish kroner (approximately US$849 million) in sales achieved in 2019 by Saxenda (liraglutide), an earlier approved obesity drug.

Now, Novo Nordisk's ambitions in the obesity field are based on the company's latest potential blockbuster GLP-1 drug, Wegovy, which received approval from the U.S. FDA in June 2021.

On Thursday this week, Novo Nordisk stated in a presentation at its 2022 Capital Markets Day that the number of doctors prescribing Wegovy has surpassed that of Saxenda in less than a year. Within six months of its launch, Wegovy has been included in over 70% of commercial formularies.

But analysts at investment bank Jefferies wrote in a report to clients last summer that demand for Wegovy was so high last year that it exceeded the supply in the United States. This led to some temporary delays in prescriptions being filled, the analysts wrote.

In December last year, Novo Nordisk announced that there would be a shortage of Wegovy supply because a contract manufacturer responsible for filling injectors had to stop deliveries due to good manufacturing practice issues.

Nevertheless, Novo Nordisk remains confident in meeting the demand for Wegovy in the U.S. market during the second half of the year, the company stated on Thursday. Production is expected to commence in the second quarter, with Novo Nordisk's contract manufacturers planning to initiate fill testing in the "coming weeks." Novo Nordisk stated that it anticipates increasing the production capacity of Wegovy in 2023.

GlobalData analysts believe that Novo Nordisk can streamline supply. In a report on Thursday, the team stated that Novo Nordisk is expected to overcome the supply chain challenges faced by Wegovy by the end of 2022.

Novo Nordisk points out that more than 650 million people worldwide are struggling with obesity. The company states that this is also a tricky area that needs to be unlocked.

FiercePharma reported that Doug Langa, Executive Vice President of Novo Nordisk North America, said last year before the launch of Wegovy: "The stigma and prejudice associated with obesity, treatment reimbursement, the number of healthcare professionals actually prescribing it, and importantly, getting patients to seek treatment, are all significant barriers that need to be overcome."

Novo Nordisk noted that there is still much work to be done in treating obesity as a disease requiring medication, but the narrative surrounding this condition is changing.

Novo Nordisk noted that the media has adopted a "more empathetic tone," and this disease is gaining increasing recognition within the healthcare community. Healthcare decision-makers are also acknowledging the condition, while patient groups are increasingly encouraging individuals with obesity to seek treatment.

Overall, in 2021, Novo Nordisk's sales in diabetes and obesity surged by 15% to reach 121.6 billion Danish kroner. Sales from the obesity business alone grew by 55%. Currently, Novo Nordisk has not yet released separate sales data for Wegovy, but Jefferies analysts recently estimated that the drug generated approximately 700 million Danish kroner (about 104 million USD) in sales during the last quarter of 2021.

Source: Novo Nordisk, citing strong Wegovy demand, doubles 2025 sales target for obesity franchise