Novo Nordisk's 2nd-qtr 2008 profit falls 32%

Danish insulin giant Novo Nordisk's second-quarter 2008 net profit fell 32% year-on-year to 2.47 billion kroner ($496.7 million) as the like-period last year was inflated by the sale of a stake in cancer diagnostics firm Dako AS.

In the first six months of the year, gross margin improved by 1.3 percentage points in local currencies and by 0.1 points in kroner to 77.1%, reflecting continued productivity improvements and a negative currency impact of around 1.2 points. Operating profit jumped 11% to 5.67 billion kroner.