Novo Nordisk A/S

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Q2 2023 Novo Nordisk AS Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there'll be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1 and 1 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 1 and 1 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Daniel Bosen, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Welcome to this Novo Nordisk earnings call for the first six months of 2023 and the outlook for the year. My name is Daniel Bosen and I'm Head of Investor Relations at Novo Nordisk. With me today I have CEO of Novo Nordisk, Lars Fogor Jørgensen, Executive Vice President and Head of Commercial Strategy and Corporate Affairs, Camilla Sylvestre, Executive Vice President and Head of North America Operations, Doc Lange. Executive Vice President and Head of Development, Martin Holst Lange. And finally, Chief Financial Officer, Carsten Munch Knusen. All speakers will be available for the Q&A session. Today's announcement and the slide for this call are available on our website, novo-nordisk.com. Please note that this call is being webcast live and a recording will be made available on our website as well. The call is scheduled to last approximately 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. Please turn to the next slide. As always, we need to advise you that this call will contain forward-looking statements. These are 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 six months of this year and the slides prepared for this presentation. With that, over to you, Lars, for an update on our strategic aspirations.

Thank you, Daniel. Please turn to the next slide. In the first six months of 2023, we delivered 30% sales and 32% operating profit growth, which has enabled us to raise our outlook for the full year. I'd 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 28% compared to pre-pandemic levels in 2019. In line with our aspiration of being a sustainable employer, we continue to expand the number of women in senior leadership positions. This is now 40% compared to 38% last year. Within R&D, we are encouraged by the many phase three readouts with semaglutide in obesity. We are very pleased with the results of the recently completed cardiovascular outcome trial SELECT. SELECT is the largest trial ever undertaken by NorNordisk, and the results establish the semaglutide 2.4 mg as the only anti-obesity medication with proven cardiovascular benefits. We are committed to drive change in obesity and believe that the SELECT trial with semaglutide 2.4 mg underlines the importance of recognizing obesity as a serious chronic disease. We believe the benefits of semaglutide on major adverse cardiovascular events in this population will not only be a big difference for patients, but also add value to society. Martin will come back to this and our overall R&D milestones later. The quarterly sales growth reflects strong commercial execution across operating units. Both operating units contribute to sales growth driven by increasing demand for OGV1-based diabetes and obesity treatments. The performance in the first six months has enabled us to raise the outlook for the full year. 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 for the first six months of 2023. With that, I'll give the word to Camilla for an update on execution.