Novo Nordisk Earnings: Wegovy Pill Beats Forecasts as Novo Raises Outlook

Novo Nordisk on Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026, raised its full-year outlook after third-quarter sales and profit beat analysts’ forecasts. The quarter was driven by early demand for its new Wegovy pill. The Danish drugmaker’s shares rose as much as 6% in Copenhagen after the Novo Nordisk earnings report. They have fallen sharply over the past year as Eli Lilly took share in the market for obesity drugs.

Key figures: Q3 sales 79.2 billion kroner (about $11.9 billion), +4% at constant currency · adjusted operating profit 31.72 billion kroner, +27% · Wegovy pill 5.39 billion kroner · 8.7 billion kroner in impairments · 2026 outlook raised to -2% to +2%

The quarter

Sales came to 79.2 billion Danish kroner, up 4% at constant exchange rates. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected 73.6 billion, CNBC reported. Adjusted operating profit rose 27% at constant exchange rates to 31.72 billion kroner, against forecasts of about 28.6 billion.

Reported operating profit fell 9% to 23.0 billion kroner because of 8.7 billion kroner of impairments. Of that, 4.6 billion kroner related to ziltivekimab, an experimental heart drug, and 4.1 billion kroner to manufacturing assets, according to CNBC.

The Wegovy pill, an oral form of semaglutide approved in the U.S., brought in 5.39 billion kroner in the quarter. Analysts had expected about 4.5 billion. Of that, 4.18 billion kroner came from the U.S. Pill sales for the first nine months of the year reached 10.87 billion kroner. Injectable Wegovy sold 20.4 billion kroner and Ozempic, the diabetes version of the same drug, 29.7 billion.

Novo Nordisk earnings by the numbers

Analysis: The pill made up about 7% of total quarterly sales, a TBR calculation, but its beat of roughly 0.9 billion kroner over forecasts accounts for a large share of the gap between actual sales and FactSet’s estimate. Ozempic and injectable Wegovy together still made up about 63% of revenue. The adjusted figure strips out the impairments, which is why profit growth looks much stronger than the reported number. Investors will watch whether pill growth continues in the fourth quarter. Novo has not said how much of the pill’s growth came from new patients versus people switching from injections.

Raised outlook and management changes

Novo now expects 2026 sales and adjusted operating profit to range from a 2% decline to 2% growth at constant exchange rates, up from a previous range of a 6% decline to flat. It plans a U.S. launch of CagriSema, its next-generation obesity treatment, in early 2027.

Chief Financial Officer Karsten Munk Knudsen will leave at the end of 2026. Luigi La Corte, who comes from skin-care company Galderma, will succeed him.

Chief executive Mike Doustdar cautioned against reading too much into one report. “Turnaround and recovery is not done based on one data point, on one quarterly good result,” he told CNBC. Doustdar also said Novo holds about 80% of the U.S. market for obesity pills. That figure is the company’s own claim and was not independently verified. Novo’s U.S. share of the overall GLP-1 market has fallen as Lilly’s Zepbound and Mounjaro gained ground, which is why the pill matters so much to the turnaround. Citi kept its neutral rating on the stock after the results, CNBC reported.

Why it matters beyond Denmark

The weight-loss drug market is one of the most closely watched themes in business news because the drugs are expensive and widely used. They can move insurers’ costs, which matters for companies such as CVS Health, which also reported Wednesday (our CVS Health split story). Novo’s results also come as European prices stay high: eurozone inflation hit 4% in October (our report).

Sources

• Novo Nordisk via GlobeNewswire: Novo raises full-year outlook on continued GLP-1 momentum (Nov. 4, 2026)
• CNBC: Novo Nordisk Q3 earnings, Wegovy sales
• Novo Nordisk: Investors