Novo Nordisk reported adjusted operating profit of DKK 33.39 billion for the second quarter of 2026, an 11 percent increase at constant exchange rates. Adjusted sales for the period reached DKK 78.49 billion, rising 7 percent at constant exchange rates.
Despite the strong adjusted Q2 performance, Novo Nordisk updated its full-year 2026 outlook, now projecting adjusted EBIT growth and adjusted revenue growth each in the range of -6 to 0 percent.
Reported Q2 2026 sales told a different story. Reported sales grew just 3 percent at constant exchange rates, held back by a DKK 2.6 billion rebate provision reversal tied to the U.S. 340B Drug Pricing Program recorded in Q2 2025. That prior-year reversal inflated the comparable base, making Q2 2026 reported growth appear softer than the underlying business warranted.
The same dynamic played out in reverse during Q1 2026, when reported sales surged 32 percent at constant exchange rates—boosted by a similar 340B reversal. Strip out that reversal and Q1 2026 adjusted sales actually fell 4 percent at constant exchange rates, driven by lower realized prices, with GLP-1 volume growth across geographies only partially offsetting the pricing pressure.
The adjusted figures—excluding 340B reversals—offer the cleaner read on operational performance. On that basis, Q2 2026's 7 percent adjusted sales growth represents a genuine sequential improvement over Q1's adjusted decline.
Q1 2026 adjusted operating profit was DKK 32.858 billion. The Q2 figure of DKK 33.39 billion marks a sequential gain, suggesting cost discipline is holding margins even as pricing headwinds persist.
The full-year guidance for flat to negative growth signals that Novo Nordisk expects those headwinds—pricing pressure and competition in its core GLP-1 markets—to continue through the back half of 2026. The company did not specify the exact drivers behind the revised outlook.
Novo Nordisk will announce its full-year 2026 results before the opening of the Nasdaq Copenhagen stock exchange.
