COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Sales of its blockbuster diabetes drug helped boost fourth-quarter profits at Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk AS by 19 percent.
The world's biggest insulin maker 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 period of 2010.
Quarterly sales rose 12 percent to 18.12 billion kroner ($3.2 billion) from 16.12 billion.
Chief Executive Lars Rebien Soerensen said Thursday that 2011 "had been a very positive year," and said the Copenhagen-based group saw "significant progress for our portfolio of clinical development projects."
For 2012, it said it expects a sales growth of 7 to 11 percent, which is about 4 percentage points higher than initially expected.
Shares