Solid Novo Results expected

02-08-2010 15:28 Danish pharma company Novo Nordisk is expected to present a solid set of figures when it releases its 2010 Q2 results Thursday. Analysts are in agreement that the multinational company, which specializes in diabetes drugs, performed better in the first half of 2010 than many expected.

Analysts’ positive expectations are founded partly on well-received US launch of Novo’s diabetes two drug Victoza, and the fact that a competing product developed by Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche has been delayed from 12 to 18 months.

After five months on the market, Victoza  now accounts for 26 percent of all GLP-1 class diabetes prescriptions and 33.9 percent of all new GLP-1 prescriptions

Novo’s shareholders can also be thankful that no generic alternative to another of its diabetes drugs Prandin, has not yet been launched. The possibility of a generic rival to Prandin was thus one of the reasons CFO Jesper Overgaard Fire gave to explain the relatively wide spread in the company’s revenue guidance for 2010, which predicts a growth of between seven and ten percent in local currency.

JPMorgan Cazenove now sees a possibility that Novo’s sales growth outlook in local currency could be narrowed to between eight and ten percent. However, Alm. Brand Markets predict no change to Novo's expectations.

Revenue for Victoza is expected to be DKK 215 million in Q2, well below first quarter revenue of DKK 370 million which was boosted by stockbuilding associated with the US launch. The company has predicted that sales of Victoza could be worth a billion U.S. dollars over the next five years.