Novo Nordisk Responsible for Half of Denmark’s GDP Growth

Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk, known for its diabetes treatment Ozempic and obesity treatment Wegovy, will be responsible for almost half of Denmark’s GDP growth by 2024 on the back of the commercial success of these drugs worldwide, according to estimates by Danske Bank.

The analysis published on Tuesday, September 3rd, 2024, by the entity predicts that the Scandinavian country will advance this year by 1.8%, which represents a downward revision from the previous 2.1% , but which is partially explained by the improvement in the reading for 2023. In 2025, an expansion of 2% is anticipated, without changes.

This data puts Denmark well ahead of its Nordic peers, with Sweden and Norway expected to grow by 1.2% and 0.7% this year, while Finland’s GDP is expected to decline by 0.4%.

Although Novo Nordisk will remain key in Denmark, Danske Bank has indicated that its prominence has not overshadowed the “decent” performance of the rest of the sectors during 2023. In this sense, GDP would have increased last year by 2.5%, although if the pharmaceutical industry is excluded, this figure would remain at 1.3%.

Novo Nordisk’s half-year results

At the beginning of August, Novo Nordisk reported that it had earned a net profit of 45,457 million Danish crowns (6.09 billion euros) in the first half of 2024, 16% more than the result recorded a year earlier in the same period.

Novo Nordisk’s net sales amounted to SEK 133.409 billion (EUR 17.884 billion) in June, up 23.9% compared to the first half of 2023. Sales revenue from Ozempic amounted to SEK 56.685 billion (7.6 billion euros), up 36%, while sales of Wegovy grew 74% to SEK 21.036 billion (2.82 billion euros).

Novo Nordisk has been growing at a rapid pace for months thanks to Ozempic and Wegovy

These are two diabetes treatments, but they are being used to treat obesity thanks to their effectiveness in weight loss, which has boosted orders. “Demand is far outstripping supply and capacity is not expected to match demand for some time,” said Rune Sand-Holm, manager of the Nordic firm DNB AM, in a commentary.

That is, these drugs are selling like hotcakes , and if the company could produce more, they would sell like hotcakes, too. The same is true for its US competitor, Eli Lilly, which is in the same position, according to the investment firm.

The trend is so strong that Ozempic’s company makes Novo Nordisk stand out among its peers. In 2023, the eurozone as a whole grew by 0.5%, while Denmark outperformed it by two percentage points. But the country has also shone above its peers, the geographically closest and most similar countries, Finland, Norway and Switzerland.

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(Featured image by Kylie Cheung via Unsplash)

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First published in PlantaDoce and elEconomista.es. A third-party contributor translated and adapted the article from the original. In case of discrepancy, the original will prevail.

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