Full-year 2024 results: sales DKK 290.4 billion, Ozempic DKK 120.3 billion, Wegovy DKK 58.2 billion

Novo Nordisk reported full-year 2024 sales of DKK 290,403 million, up 25% in Danish kroner and 26% at constant exchange rates, with operating profit of DKK 128,339 million, also up 25% (26% at CER) ^[1]. The company guided to slower growth in 2025: sales up 16% to 24% at constant exchange rates, with reported kroner growth expected about 3 percentage points higher ^[1].

The semaglutide franchise drove most of the increase. Ozempic, the type 2 diabetes injection, generated DKK 120,342 million, a 26% increase in both kroner and at CER ^[1]. Wegovy, the same molecule at higher doses for weight management, brought in DKK 58.2 billion for the year, compared with DKK 31.3 billion in 2023 ^[2]. In the fourth quarter alone, Wegovy sales more than doubled to DKK 19.9 billion (roughly $2.8 billion) from DKK 9.6 billion a year earlier ^[2]. Even so, analysts at Intron Health noted that Wegovy's quarterly growth missed Wall Street expectations by about 2% ^[2].

Other products moved in different directions. Rybelsus, the oral semaglutide tablet, rose 24% in kroner to DKK 23,301 million ^[1]. Victoza, an older daily liraglutide injection, fell 37% to DKK 5,482 million as the diabetes GLP-1 market shifted toward once-weekly treatment ^[1]. Combined obesity care sales, which include Wegovy and Saxenda, reached DKK 65,146 million, up 56% ^[1]. Insulin sales rose 15% to DKK 55,373 million ^[1]. Net profit was DKK 100,988 million, up 21% ^[1].

On the company's earnings call, David Moore, head of U.S. operations, said Wegovy has reached about 200,000 weekly prescriptions in the United States, roughly double the number at the start of 2024 ^[2]. He said the total U.S. market for anti-obesity medicines grew 160% last year ^[2]. Novo put the volume growth of the global branded obesity market at 119% and said it holds a 70.4% volume share ^[1].

Why it matters for patients

The part of the report that touches daily life most directly is supply. Novo's own 2025 outlook says the company expects "continued periodic supply constraints and related drug shortage notifications across a number of products and geographies," citing higher-than-expected volume growth and capacity limits at some manufacturing sites ^[1]. That language sits alongside reporting that Novo appears to have largely moved past the worst of its earlier shortages ^[2]. In other words, the company is not declaring the supply problem solved.

Novo is spending heavily to fix it. Capital expenditure on property, plant and equipment was DKK 47.2 billion in 2024, up from DKK 25.8 billion in 2023, and the company expects to spend around DKK 65 billion in 2025 on active ingredient production, aseptic and finished production, and packaging ^[1]. Free cash flow was negative DKK 14.7 billion in 2024, mainly because of the $11.7 billion paid for three Catalent manufacturing sites ^[1]. Those three sites bring Novo's U.S. fill-finish facilities to 14, but executive Camilla Sylvest said they are expected to add supply beyond pre-existing contract manufacturing commitments only "from '26" ^[2].

Pricing is the other thread. Novo's guidance explicitly builds in "intensifying competition and continued pricing pressure within Diabetes and Obesity care" ^[1]. Chief financial officer Karsten Munk Knudsen named supply, the "magnitude of competition" and net pricing levels as the three factors that could push 2025 results up or down ^[2]. Competition and price pressure can change what insurers cover and what people pay at the pharmacy, but the sources do not spell out what U.S. list or net prices will be.

Novo's research spending grew 48% to DKK 48,062 million, reflecting more late-stage trial activity and early research ^[1]. That funds the pipeline behind the products now on pharmacy shelves, though the report excerpt does not break out which programs.

What happens next

The 2025 guidance was issued 5 February 2025 and assumes no major shifts in macroeconomic conditions, tariffs, healthcare reform, or the outcome of U.S. litigation tied to the 340B Drug Pricing Program ^[1]. Novo expects operating profit growth of 19% to 27% at CER and free cash flow of DKK 75–85 billion for the year ^[1]. The added supply from the Catalent sites is expected to reach the market starting in 2026 ^[2].