Novo Nordisk A/S

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the first quarter 2023 Nova Nordisk AS earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be the question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you need to press star 11 on your telephone keypad. You will then hear an automatic message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to our speaker today, CEO Lars Fugard Jorgensen. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Operator. Welcome to this Novo Nordisk earnings call for the first three months of 2023. Today's announcement discloses the full set of results following the release of top-line results and updated outlook earlier in April. This was shared ahead of time due to Danish securities regulations. My name is Lars Rurgard Jorgensen, and I'm the CEO of Northern Nordisk. With me today, I have Executive Vice President and Head of Commercial Strategy and Corporate Affairs, Camille Silvestre, Executive Vice President and Head of North America Operations, Doug Lange, Executive Vice President and Head of Development, Martin Holst Lange, and finally, Chief Financial Officer, Carsten Munch-Knudsen. All of us will be available for the Q&A session. Today's announcements and the slides for this call are available on our website, northernnordisk.com. Please note that this call is being webcasted live and a recording will be made available on our website as well. The call is scheduled to last one hour. Please turn to the next slide. The presentation is structured as outlined on slide two. Please note that all sales and operating profit growth statements will be at constant exchange rate unless otherwise specified. As always, I need to advise you that this call will contain forward-looking statements such as subject to risk and uncertainty that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. For further information on the risk factors, please see the company announcement for the first three months of 2023 and the slides prepared for this presentation. Please turn to the next slide. In the first three months of 2023, we delivered 25% sales growth and 28% operating profit growth. Furthermore, we raised the outlook for the year In the early announcement shared on April 13th of 2023, I would like to start this call by going through the performance highlights across our strategic aspirations before handing over the word to my colleagues. Within purpose and sustainability, we continue to make progress across all dimensions. Our carbon emissions decreased by 21% compared to pre-pandemic levels in 2019. In line with our strategic aspirations of being a sustainable employer, we continue to expand the number of women in senior leadership positions. This is now 39% compared to 37% end of March 2022. Within R&D, we are pleased with a successful completion of Pioneer Plus trial with all semaglutide 25 and 50 mg that is setting the bar for all incotines in type 2 diabetes. Martin will come back to this and our overall R&D milestones later. Within rare endocrine disorders, we are happy to announce that once weekly, sogroya was approved by the US FDA for the treatment of children with growth hormone deficiency. This is an important milestone for patients and for the rare disease portfolio. Quarterly sales growth reflects solid commercial execution across operating units. Both operating units contributed to sales growth driven by demand for our GLV-1 treatments for both diabetes and obesity. In the U.S., the prescription transfer we go with highlights the high unmet need for people living with obesity. Camilla and Doc will go through the details per therapy area later. Carson will go through the financials, but I'm very pleased with the performance so far this year. With that, I'll give the word to Camilla for an update on exclusions.

Thank you, Lars, and please turn to the next slide. As Lars mentioned, our total sales increased by 25% in the first three months of 2023. This sales increase was driven by both operating units, with North America operations growing by 41% and international operations growing 10%. Sales growth was positively impacted by U.S. wholesaler inventory movements. Our GLP-1 sales increased 50%, driven by North America growing 50% and international operations growing 52%. Insulin sales decreased by 11%, driven by an 8% decline in international operations and an 18% sales decline in North America operations. Insulin sales in international operations were impacted by the implementation of volume-based procurement in China in May 2022. Obesity care sales grew 124% overall. In international operations, sales grew 65% driven by both Saxenda and Vigoli. In North America operations, obesity care sales grew 156%. Total rare disease sales decreased by 16% driven by a 17% decrease in international operations and by a 14% decrease in North America operations. Rare endocrine disorder sales were unfortunately impacted by a temporary reduction in manufacturing output. Please turn to the next slide. With 21% sales growth in our diabetes care, we are growing faster than the total diabetes market, leading to an increased market share of 32.2%. With this, we are on track to reach one-third of the diabetes value market by 2025. This increase primarily reflects GLP-1 market growth as well as share gains in both operating units. Please turn to the next slide. In international operations, total diabetes care sales increased by 12% in the first three months of 2023, driven by GLP-1 sales growing 52%. Novo Nordisk is the market leader in international operations with a GLP-1 value market share of 65%, driven by all geographies. USEMPIC continues its GLP-1 market leadership with around 44% market share. We are also pleased to see Rebelshoes increasing its market share to just shy of 9%, driven by a strong uptake across geographies. And with that, I will hand over the word to Doug.