Novo launches Saxenda in US, sees more launches in 2015

(Adds drug price, analyst's comment)

COPENHAGEN, April 22 (Reuters) - Novo Nordisk has launched its Saxenda obesity drug in the United States, it said on Wednesday, a long-awaited milestone that will provide a new revenue stream for the Danish drugmaker.

It will cost $1,068 per month, and the price paid by the individual patient will depend on his or her health insurance, the company said in an email to Reuters.

Sydbank analyst Soren Lontoft Hansen said the price was as expected because it has the same active ingredient as Novo's Victoza - a diabetes drug used to treat obesity directly.

It will launch Saxenda in other markets later this year, the company said in a statement. It provided no further details on the market potential of the drug, but has said it expects sales from to eventually reach $1 billion a year.

Novo plans to use 500 of its 3,000-strong U.S. sales force to promote Saxenda, but has warned a ramp-up of sales would be slow.

Deputy Chief Executive Kaare Schultz told Reuters last month safety concerns over past weight-loss medicines as well as reimbursement issues meant it would take a while to get sales of Saxenda going.

Shares in Novo, by far the largest company in the Nordic region by market capitalisation, were down 0.41 percent at 391.50 crowns at 1455 GMT.

They hit all-time highs last month on news the company would resubmit its Tresiba insulin to U.S. regulators for approval.

(Reporting by Teis Jensen and Sabina Zawadzki, additional reporting by Alexander Tange; Editing by Mark Potter)