Pharma giant Novo Nordisk has seen the booming demand for its weight loss drugs outstrip supply.
The Danish company’s revenues have surged thanks to an explosion in popularity for its diabetes and obesity drugs Ozempic and Wegovy.
The frenzy means it has pumped cash into making more. Sales for the first three months of the year rose 24 per cent to £7.4billion compared to a year earlier.
As a result, it is now expecting annual sales to increase by between 19 per cent and 27 per cent this year, an upgrade from the 18 per cent to 26 per cent it forecast in January.
Wegovy is a weekly injection and tricks the body into thinking it is full. It is available on the NHS but the drug’s popularity has taken off in the US.
Fat jab: Novo Nordisk’s revenues have surged thanks to an explosion in popularity for its diabetes and obesity drugs Ozempic and Wegovy
Celebrity fans include eccentric billionaire Elon Musk and talk show host Oprah Winfrey.
Novo is signing up more than 25,000 new patients for Wegovy every week in the US. But it warned there will be ‘continued periodic supply constraints’.
Holding on to half of the world’s market share for medical treatments of this kind, Novo Nordisk has seen its share price rise 55 per cent in a year.
And Novo is set to grow even more as stars show off their new looks. It is set to debut Wegovy in China this year.
And analysts believe the price – around £170 in UK pharmacies but £1,078 in the US – will fall, drawing in a new wave of patients.
Dan Coatsworth, investment analyst at AJ Bell, said: ‘The buzz around Wegovy makes it more than just a must-have product.
It’s in danger of becoming a status symbol with the rich and famous eager to take it.’
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