Novo Nordisk got a major lift this week after its new oral Wegovy weight loss pill delivered first quarter sales that nearly doubled what Wall Street had predicted, pushing the Danish drugmaker’s stock up nearly 7% and prompting the company to raise its full year financial guidance.
The Wegovy pill, which became available in the United States in January, brought in 2.26 billion Danish kroner roughly $356 million during its first three months on the market. Analysts had projected around 1.16 billion kroner for the period, making the actual result nearly twice those estimates. The company also reported that approximately 1.3 million prescriptions for the pill were written in the first quarter alone.
A genuine turnaround for Novo Nordisk
The strong pill performance comes at a critical moment for Novo Nordisk, which spent much of the past year navigating a string of setbacks from disappointing clinical trial results to financial outlooks that rattled investors. Shares had hit a five year low earlier in 2026 after the company’s next generation drug candidate, CagriSema, was shown to be less effective than a rival treatment in Novo’s own study.
Now, with the Wegovy pill gaining traction, the mood around the company has shifted. Novo Nordisk CEO Mike Doustdar described the brand’s current position as a turnaround, noting that Wegovy now holds 65% of all new prescriptions in the U.S. weight loss drug market a significant lead over competitors. He also said the pill’s growth is continuing at a double digit pace even as rival Eli Lilly entered the oral weight loss space in April with its own pill, Foundayo.
Pills and injections are growing together, not competing
One of the bigger questions heading into the quarter was whether an oral option would pull patients away from Wegovy’s injectable version effectively cannibalizing the company’s own existing business. The data so far suggests that isn’t happening.
Sales of the injectable Wegovy climbed 12% year over year to 18.2 billion kroner, and Doustdar noted that patients appear to be using both formats, with the pill attracting new users rather than replacing existing ones. The result has been a broader expansion of the overall market rather than a redistribution of it.
Novo’s total first quarter sales reached 96.8 billion kroner, or about $15.2 billion, representing a 32% jump on a constant currency basis. Operating profit surged 65% on a reported basis. On an adjusted basis which strips out a $4.2 billion non recurring benefit tied to a U.S. drug pricing program sales fell 4% and profits declined 6%.
Raising the bar for the rest of 2026
On the strength of the Wegovy pill’s debut and continued growth in international markets, Novo Nordisk updated its full-year guidance. The company now expects adjusted sales and operating profit to decline between 4% and 12% on a currency adjusted basis, a modest improvement over its previous forecast of a 5% to 13% decline. The company also confirmed plans to launch the Wegovy pill outside the U.S. in the second half of 2026, pending regulatory approvals in those markets.
Not everyone was fully satisfied, however. Analysts at Jefferies pointed out after the earnings release that the company did not raise the lower end of its guidance range as much as some had hoped, suggesting that the update may not move consensus forecasts as significantly as investors might like.
Where things stand with Eli Lilly
The rivalry between Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly remains one of the most closely watched storylines in the pharmaceutical industry. Analysts expect the combined weight loss drug market to reach $100 billion by the end of the decade, and both companies are competing aggressively for a share of it.
Lilly has held an edge in the injectable market in the U.S., and its GLP-1 drugs Mounjaro and Zepbound posted sales growth of 125% and 80%, respectively, last quarter. The company also raised its full year outlook after reporting 56% total revenue growth. Its new weight loss pill, Foundayo, launched in early April, though Lilly’s own leadership has acknowledged that building awareness around a brand new medicine takes time describing the ramp up as a matter of quarters rather than days.
For now, the Wegovy pill’s early and decisive lead in the oral weight loss category has handed Novo Nordisk a meaningful advantage and given investors a reason to feel better about where the company is headed.
