COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Danish diabetes and obesity drug developer Novo Nordisk expects to generate sales growth in local currencies of between 13% and 19% in 2023, it said on Wednesday while reporting below-forecast profits for the fourth quarter.
“We are very pleased with the double-digit sales growth in 2022 driven by our innovative GLP-1-based diabetes and obesity treatments,” Chief Executive Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen said in a statement.
Novo also expects operating profit growth in 2023 to be in a range between 13% and 19%.
The company reported fourth quarter earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of 17.1 billion Danish crowns ($2.50 billion), below the 18.1 billion crowns expected by analysts in a Refinitiv poll.
The firm will propose a dividend of 8.15 crowns per share, making the total dividend for 2022 12.4 crowns per share. A new 12-month share repurchase programme of up to 28 billion crowns has been initiated, the company said.
($1 = 6.8401 Danish crowns)
(Reporting by Nikolaj Skydsgaard, editing by Terje Solsvik)
