Novo Nordisk A/S

Welcome to this Novo Nordisk earnings call for the first three months of 2024. My name is Daniel Musman-Bosen, and I'm the 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 Holtz Lange, and finally, Chief Financial Officer, Carsten Munch Knudsen. All speakers will be available for the Q&A session. Today's announcement and the slides for this call are available on our website, novonordis.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 2. Please note that all sales and operating profit growth statements will be at constant exchange rates unless otherwise specified. Please turn to the next slide. 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 three months of 2024 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 three months, We have delivered 24% sales growth and 30% operating profit growth. Furthermore, we have raised the 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. Starting with our focus on purpose and sustainability, we are now serving almost 42 million patients with our diabetes and obesity treatments. Our total carbon emission rose by 32%, as compared to the first quarter of 2023. This was primarily driven by our increased investments in capital expenditure to meet the high demand for our products. Compared to the first quarter of 2019, carbon emissions from operations and transportation decreased by 31%. To uphold our commitment to being a sustainable employer, we expanded the number of women in senior leadership positions to 41%, compared with 39% in the first quarter of 2023. Within R&D, we are pleased with the successful completion of the flow kidney outcomes trial and the approval of the Regovit label expansion in the U.S. based on the select cardiovascular outcomes trial. Martin will come back to this and our overall R&D milestones later. We also announced the agreement to acquire three field finish sites from Nova Holdings in connection with a transaction where Nova Holdings has agreed to acquire Catalent. This is expected to enable us to reach many more people living with serious chronic diseases. The quarterly sales growth reflects solid commercial execution across operating units. Both operating units contributed to sales growth driven by demand for our GP1 treatments for both diabetes and obesity. Camilla and Doug 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. Now, I'd like to hand the word over to Camilla, who will give us an update on the commercial execution.

Thank you, Lars, and please turn to the next slide. In the first three months of 2024, our total sales increased by 24%. The sales growth was driven by both operating units, with North America operations growing 35% and international operations growing 11%. In the U.S., sales growth was positively impacted by gross-to-net sales adjustments related to prior years. Our GLP-1 sales in diabetes increased 32%, driven by North America operations, growing 37%, and international operations growing 22%. Insulin sales increased by 9%, driven by North America operations, growing 23%, and international operations growing 5%. Obesity care sales increased 42%, driven by North America operations, growing 44%, and international operations growing 35%. In both geographies, growth was driven by Vigovi, partly offset by declining Saxenda sales. Doc will talk more about North America obesity performance, but in IO, Vigovi sales exceeded 1 billion Danish kroner in the quarter. We continue to roll out Vigovi in a sustainable manner with volume cap launches to balance supply and demand. Rare disease sales decreased by 3%, which Doc will also speak more to later. Please turn to the next slide. With 24% sales growth in diabetes care, we are growing faster than the total diabetes market. As a result, our global diabetes value market share increased to 34%, which is above our strategic aspiration of reaching one-third of the global diabetes value market in 2025. The increase reflects market share gains in both North America operations and international operations. In international operations, please turn to the next slide. In international operations, diabetes care sales increased by 12% in the first three months of 2024, which was primarily driven by GLP-1 sales growing 22%. Novo Nordisk is the market leader in international operations with a GLP-1 value market share of around 70%. Osempic continues its GLP-1 market leadership with 47.2% market share. We are also pleased to see Rebelsus increasing its market share to around 15% driven by solid uptake across geographies. And with that, I will hand over the word to Doug.