(Yicai) Aug. 7 -- Novo Nordisk maintains strong confidence in its long-term growth in the Chinese market despite the Danish pharmaceutical giant reporting local sales of its weight-loss drug declined in the first half of this year, according to its new chief executive officer.

China has massive unmet medical needs, Mike Doustdar, who took over as CEO of Novo Nordisk today, after previously leading its global operations, said at a second-quarter earnings conference call yesterday. The Bagsværd-based company will continue to strengthen its market position in the world's second-largest healthcare market, he added.

Sales of Semaglutide, a glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist, in China fell around 11 percent in the six months ended June 30, mainly due to wholesaler inventory adjustments and timing issues rather than competitive pressure, Doustdar noted.

"I'm very confident about China's future because it has a huge amount of unmet need," Doustdar said. "200 million people living with obesity, 100 million people living with diabetes is what I get my confidence from."

“We are not losing market share in China. The opposite, we're gaining market share," Doustdar pointed out. "We're a bit left alone, competition is not yet present, so that is not the reason for the lower growth. Is one-and-a-half things.

"The one thing is comparing it to last year, where we, in anticipation of Wegovy launches, built some large stocks, and we now need to make adjustments for this quarter, so it's a timely event," Doustdar said. "The half issue is that we need to accelerate the GLP-1 market growth, still in diabetes, but certainly also in obesity."

The drop in Semaglutide's China sales was offset by Novo Nordisk's global obesity care sales surging 125 percent in the first half, with those of its leading obesity drug Wegovy soaring 335 percent.

Novo Nordisk plans to expand beyond big Chinese cities to lower-tier markets, increasing investments in offline channels and digital platforms to reach these markets.

"You start somewhere in the center and you reach your customers, then you need to start going into the broader China, covering Tier Two and Tier Three and Tier Four," Doustdar pointed out.

Novo Nordisk's net profit jumped 32 percent to DKK26.5 billion (USD4.1 billion) in the second quarter from a year earlier, below the market expectation of DKK27 billion. Revenue rose 13 percent to DKK76.9 billion (USD12 billion), also short of DKK77 billion estimates.

In addition, Novo Nordisk lowered its annual sales growth outlook to between 8 percent and 14 percent from between 13 percent and 21 percent, citing illegal drug compounding in the United States limiting Wegovy sales.

Editor: Martin Kadiev