Ozempic gross sales within the US are pushing producer’s native Denmark to maintain rates of interest low because of the big inflow of overseas forex

Individuals are shopping for a lot Ozempic that it is shifting the financial system of Denmark, the place the drug’s maker Novo Nordisk is predicated.

Novo, Europe’s second most respected listed firm behind LVMH, is driving a wave of giant demand for its diabetes and weight-loss medicine Ozempic and Wegovy, sending the corporate’s earnings to file highs. 

Analysts anticipate Novo’s weight-loss drug gross sales to hit $6.1 billion this 12 months, and to achieve practically $15 billion yearly in 2027, in keeping with polling from FactSet. 

However now, Novo is exchanging US {dollars} from overseas gross sales for kroner in such an uncommon amount that it has boosted the Danish forex relative to the euro, bankers and economists informed the Wall Street Journal.

‘As a result of the pharmaceutical business’s exports have grown a lot, it is creating an enormous inflow of forex into the Danish financial system,’ Danske Financial institution director Jens Naervig Pedersen informed the outlet.

Danish policymakers have responded to the Ozempic greenback inflow by conserving their central financial institution charges decrease than these of the European Central Financial institution

Novo’s market capitalization of $418 billion is an order of magnitude bigger than the next-largest Danish firm, transport agency DSV, which is valued at $41 billion

Denmark works to maintain its krone pegged to the euro at a set fee, and Danish policymakers have responded to the greenback inflow by conserving their central financial institution charges decrease than these of the European Central Financial institution.

Novo’s market capitalization of $418 billion is an order of magnitude bigger than the next-largest Danish firm, transport agency DSV, which is valued at $41 billion. 

Novo’s valuation is even greater than Denmark’s gross home product of $409 billion, though the 2 figures are usually not comparable — one is the entire worth of all Novo shares, and the opposite is the annual output of Denmark’s financial system.

Novo manufactures its weight-loss medicine at two vegetation in Denmark, in addition to a website in New Hampshire and at a sprawling advanced in Clayton, North Carolina that employs 1,700. 

Nevertheless, specialists warn there are dangers inherent in having a single firm dominate the financial system of a small nation.

The Journal pointed to telecom Nokia’s function in Finland, the place the corporate accounted for 4 p.c of GDP at its peak in 2000, however has since gone into decline.

Denmark might face related dangers if a more practical competitor knocks Ozempic and Wegovy off their perch, or if regulators take concern with the medicine.

Already, a string of rivals are engaged on weight-loss therapies much like Wegovy, vying for a slice of a market estimated to be price as a lot as $100 billion by the top of the last decade. 

Individuals are shopping for a lot Ozempic that it is shifting the financial system of Denmark, the place the drug’s maker Novo Nordisk is predicated

Wegovy is a weekly injection that may assist sufferers to shed 15 p.c of their weight alongside weight-reduction plan and train modifications, and is so standard within the US that Novo is limiting provides of starter doses.

Earlier this month, the corporate stated it will prolong the bounds launched for Wegovy provides, having stated in Might that it will halve provide of starter doses to the U.S. marketplace for a number of months to make sure provides for current sufferers.

‘We have seen that the initiative we took earlier this 12 months, limiting the starter dose, has really helped handle these dynamics. So we wish to prolong that within the coming quarters,’ CEO Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen informed journalists.

Jorgensen added in a separate interview with Reuters, that the availability limitations would ‘probably’ prolong into 2024.

The information got here because the Danish drugmaker raised its full-year revenue and gross sales forecasts for a second time. 

Wegovy and Ozempic are completely different model names for semaglutide, which works by tricking the mind to suppress urge for food and cut back calorie consumption, leading to substantial weight reduction. 

It does this by mimicking the hormone glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), which is launched after consuming.

It was beforehand nicknamed Hollywood’s worst saved secret, with followers together with Elon Musk and Jeremy Clarkson.

Even Kim Kardashian was rumored to have used it to quickly lose 16lbs to suit into Marilyn Monroe’s ‘Glad Birthday Mr President’ gown on the 2022 Met Gala.

Novo Nordisk’s monetary report for the primary half of 2023 reveals it made a internet revenue of 39.2 billion Danish kroner ($5.72 billion) up from 27.5 billion kroner ($4 billion) the earlier 12 months.

The corporate — Europe’s second most respected behind luxurious items agency LVMH — stated the pattern was ‘primarily pushed by’ a 49 p.c enhance in gross sales for GLP-1 diabetes medicine. 

In complete, gross sales for these medicine got here to 99 billion kroner ($14.4 billion).

Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen, president and chief govt of Novo Nordisk, stated: ‘We’re more than happy with the gross sales development within the first half of 2023. 

‘The expansion is pushed by growing demand for our GLP-1-based diabetes and weight problems remedies, and we’re serving extra sufferers than ever earlier than.’

He added that weight problems is a ‘severe power illness’ and weight-related circumstances ‘may be considerably diminished by treating individuals with semaglutide’.