Novo Nordisk results - more good news for Diabetics

Danish based Novo Nordisk, he world's largest producer of insulin announced Q1 results which show the market for diabetic products (especially in the US) continue to grow NN detailed Q1 2006 sales growth of 23% with profits of EUR 14.4 Mn. They also have good news also of a new product in the pipeline.

CEO Lars Rebien Sørensen said ;

'Novo Nordisk had a strong first quarter with continually increasing sales world wide. We expect that sales growth for the year will increase by between 11 and 13 %.'

The US launch of Levemir, a long acting Insulin detemir (trade name Levemir®) which is a form of clear long acting insulin. This is slowly absorbed from from a sub-cutaneous injected resevoir and therefore the effects of the dose last longer – up to 24 hours, and has proved to be very successful.

Levemir accounted for much of the sales growth, making NN the only drug maker with a full line of insulin analogues.Overall sales in the US increased by 32%. Worldwide Sales of Novo Nordisk's core diabetes products were DKK 6.5bn (EUR 87m),

Levemir results in less weight gain, so, too, does another rival product,long time injectable insulin product Byetta (exenatide injection) from Lilly.

NN were also able to confirm the phase 3 program for liraglutide, the once-daily human Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) analog, This trial including around 3,800 type 2 diabetes patients was initiated in February 2006.