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COPENHAGEN — Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk A/S reported Thursday that its fourth-quarter profits soared 19 percent on the back of strong sales of its key diabetes drugs Victoza, NovoRapid and Levemir.
The world's biggest insulin maker in terms of sales said net profit in the last three months of 2011 reached 4.68 billion kroner ($825 million), up from 3.95 billion kroner in the same three-month period in 2010.
Sales in the quarter rose 12 percent to 18.12 billion kroner ($3.2 billion) from 16.12 billion.
Net profits for the full year 2011 came in at 17.1 billion kroner ($3 billion), up 19 percent from 14.4 billion kroner in 2010.
In 2011, Novo Nordisk said sales of modern insulins, human insulins and protein-related products in North America rose by 9 percent in local currencies, of which sales in China increased by 10 percent.
Chief Executive Lars Rebien Soerensen described the past 12 months as having been "a very positive year," adding the Copenhagen-based group saw "significant progress for our portfolio of clinical development projects."
The company's shares rose nearly 5 percent to 713 kroner in Copenhagen after the release of the earnings report.
For the year ahead, it said it expects sales growth of 7 to 11 percent, which is about 4 percentage points higher than initially expected.
