LONDON/COPENHAGEN (Reuters) -Wegovy maker Novo Nordisk on Wednesday forecast slower sales growth for 2025 than 2024, a blow that is likely to deepen investor concerns that the company is losing its edge in the competitive obesity market to rival Eli Lilly.

The Danish company said it expects sales growth this year between 16% and 24%, a weaker forecast than it made a year ago, as demand softens for its obesity drug Wegovy and diabetes drug Ozempic, which contain the same active ingredient.

"In 2025, we will continue our focus on commercial execution, on the progression of our early and late-stage R&D pipeline and on the expansion of our production capacity," CEO Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen said in a statement.

Novo said operating profit between October and December rose 37% to 36.7 billion Danish crowns compared with 33.6 billion forecast by analysts in a poll by the company shared by analysts.

(Reporting by Maggie Fick in London and Stine Jacobsen in Copenhagen)