Novo Nordisk 2024 Annual Report: Semaglutide Sales Near $30 Billion

On February 5, Danish company Novo Nordisk officially released its 2024 annual report. The company’s total revenue for the year was 290.4 billion Danish Krone (approximately $42.13 billion), a 25% increase compared to the previous year. Operating profit reached 128.34 billion Danish Krone (approximately $18.62 billion), marking a 25% year-on-year increase, while net profit was 100.99 billion Danish Krone (approximately $14.65 billion), an increase of 21%. Notably, Novo Nordisk's profitability (operating profit/revenue) reached 44.19%, far surpassing that of leading American innovators.

Novo Nordisk has two main business segments: diabetes and obesity care, and rare diseases. The majority of its revenue comes from diabetes and obesity care, with total sales for this segment in 2024 reaching 271.76 billion Danish Krone, while rare diseases accounted for only 18.64 billion Danish Krone.

GLP-1 is Novo Nordisk's biggest "money printer." Rybelsus (oral semaglutide) had sales of 23.3 billion Danish Krone (approximately $3.38 billion) in 2024. Ozempic (injectable semaglutide) reached 120.34 billion Danish Krone (approximately $17.46 billion), and Wegovy (weight-loss semaglutide) also had sales of 58.21 billion Danish Krone (approximately $8.44 billion). The total sales for semaglutide reached $29.28 billion. Although this performance is remarkable, it hasn't overtaken Keytruda as the new "king of drugs." In addition to semaglutide, Novo Nordisk's GLP-1 offerings include the older liraglutide, with sales from Victoza (liraglutide for diabetes) and Saxenda (liraglutide for weight loss) reaching 5.48 billion Danish Krone (approximately $795 million) and 6.94 billion Danish Krone (approximately $1.01 billion), respectively.

Insulin is Novo Nordisk's second biggest "money printer," with total sales in 2024 reaching 55.37 billion Danish Krone (approximately $8.03 billion). The growth was driven by sales of Degludec insulin, with total insulin sales up by 15.3% compared to last year. The three main long-acting insulins, Tresiba (Degludec insulin), Xultophy (Degludec insulin/liraglutide), and Levemir (Detemir insulin) had sales of 9.91 billion Danish Krone, 4.67 billion Danish Krone, and 4.5 billion Danish Krone, respectively. Two main premixed insulins, Ryzodeg (Degludec insulin/aspart insulin) and NovoMix (premixed aspart insulin/insulin aspart), had revenues of 4.93 billion Danish Krone and 5.86 billion Danish Krone, with the former increasing and the latter decreasing. Fast-acting insulins Fiasp (ultra-fast-acting insulin aspart formulation) and NovoRapid (insulin aspart) combined had sales of 18.52 billion Danish Krone, an increase of about 2.6 billion Danish Krone compared to last year. In addition to these three generations of insulins, Novo Nordisk still sells second-generation human insulin, with sales of 6.97 billion Danish Krone, though this saw a year-on-year decline.

In the rare diseases sector, Novo Nordisk's product pipeline mainly includes clotting factors and growth hormones. The total revenue for this segment was only 18.64 billion Danish Krone, a small proportion of the overall sales. The breakdown of Novo Nordisk's product sales is shown in the table below:

Compared to other international pharmaceutical giants, Novo Nordisk has not pursued large-scale mergers and acquisitions. Its R&D investment is also maintained at around 15%, but the sustained high growth in sales demonstrates the company's efficiency in product development. This efficiency can be attributed to four main factors: first, a strong focus on diabetes, with over a century of accumulated knowledge that has deepened their understanding of the disease, making focus their expertise; second, an emphasis on user experience, not aiming to be first, but the best, as evidenced by their development of top-tier, most convenient products in the field; third, maximizing market value from their existing products, exemplified by liraglutide, where Novo Nordisk developed a weight-loss version and a combination with insulin, while also conducting extensive clinical trials to prove additional cardiovascular and kidney benefits, significantly enhancing market competitiveness; and fourth, a focus on platform technology development, such as advanced fatty acid acylation, peptide oral technology, and yeast fermentation, which gives Novo Nordisk a competitive advantage in the market.