Novo Nordisk posted second-quarter net income of 3.5 billion Danish kroner ($620 million), marking an increase of 19 percent compared with the year-ago period and beating analysts' estimates of 3.3 billion kroner ($585 million), the company announced Thursday.

CEO Lars Sørensen noted that the company's "business growth is solid, driven by our portfolio of modern insulins and Victoza, and we therefore raise our guidance for 2010."

Sales of modern insulins increased 25 percent to 6.8 billion kroner ($1.2 billion), topping analyst predictions of 6.6 billion kroner ($1.17 billion), and revenue from human insulins increased 8 percent to 3.1 billion kroner ($550 million).

For other products, sales of the Danish company's haemophilia drug NovoSeven climbed 15 percent to 2.2 billion kroner ($390 million), and revenue from the growth hormone product Norditropin grew 11 percent to 1.2 billion kroner ($213 million).

Overall sales for the quarter surged 18 percent to 15.4 billion kroner ($2.7 billion), coming in ahead of analyst forecasts of 14.6 billion kroner ($2.6 billion).

Novo Nordisk noted that "the global roll-out of Victoza is progressing well," and the drug now has "27 percent GLP-1 market share of total weekly prescriptions" in the US.

Sales of the product reached 296 million kroner ($52 million) in the second quarter.

The Danish drugmaker raised its annual guidance, indicating it now expects sales growth of between 9 percent to 10 percent, from an earlier estimate of between 7 percent and 10 percent.

The company said the forecast includes "potential generic competition to NovoNorm/Prandin and an impact from the implementation of healthcare reforms primarily in the US and Europe."

Sydbank analyst Rune Majlund Dahl noted that both the second-quarter results and the raised annual guidance were stronger than expected, adding that solid sales, in particular in the US and emerging markets, was the main driver of the earnings increase. Victoza also appears to be performing well, he commented.