1st-Qtr Profits Slow At Novo Nordisk

Pretax income in the first quarter of 1997 at Danish company NovoNordisk was 560 million Danish kroner ($87 million), up 1% on that achieved in the first three months of 1996. Net income was 398 million kroner, compared with 396 million kroner a year earlier, and earnings per share were 5.30 kroner, compared with 5.28 kroner in the 1996 first quarter. Analysts Mark Tracey and John Murphy of Goldman Sachs noted that profits were adversely affected by a difficult base comparison, adding that earnings were in line with expectations.