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Popular diabetes drug is a 'good news story.' Here's why consumers need to proceed with caution
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Popular diabetes drug is a 'good news story.' Here's why consumers need to proceed with caution
London (CNN)The dazzling success of weight-loss drugs in the United States is leading to lower interest rates in Denmark, home of one of their biggest manufacturers, according to the Nordic country's biggest bank.
Sales of Wegovy — which, clinical trials have shown, can help people lose 15% of their body weight after less than 16 months — have skyrocketed in recent months. Its maker, Novo Nordisk (NONOF), has raked in almost 49 billion Danish krone in profit ($7 billion) over the first six months of this year, up 32% from the same period in 2022.
Novo Nordisk also produces Ozempic, a drug developed to treat type 2 diabetes but which contains the same active ingredient as Wegovy. Some physicians have prescribed Ozempic to patients to help them lose weight.
Booming sales of both drugs have led to an influx of US dollars into Denmark's economy, which has pushed up the value of the Danish krone, Jens Naervig Pedersen, a director at Danske Bank (DNSKF), wrote in a note last week.
Denmark's central bank has responded by keeping interest rates below those set by the European Central Bank, Pedersen said. That has discouraged foreigners from buying more krone and reduced the currency's value, he told CNN. The Danish central bank has done so because it aims to keep the krone stable against the euro in order to achieve the same level of inflation as in the 20 countries that use the euro.
