(Recasts throughout with comments from conference call, adds details on weight-loss drugs in paragraphs 2,3)

Aug 15 (Reuters) - Drug distributor Cardinal Health Inc on Tuesday raised fiscal 2024 expectations for sales at its pharmaceutical unit, banking on growing demand for newer weight-loss drugs, including GLP-1 treatments.

GLP-1s, which have seen overwhelming demand in the United States, are a class of drugs that help regulate blood sugar, slow the rate at which the stomach empties of food and decrease appetite by mimicking a gut hormone.

The drugs include Novo Nordisk's semaglutide, sold under brand name Wegovy for obesity and Ozempic for diabetes, as well as Eli Lilly's diabetes treatment Mounjaro, which is being prescribed for obesity even though it's not approved for it.

Cardinal peers AmerisourceBergen and McKesson have also flagged a potential boost to revenues for drug distributors due to high demand for these drugs.

"Looking forward, we see that there's nothing that we can foresee in the near term that will change those trends," Cardinal CFO Aaron Alt said on a conference call, referring to demand for GLP-1 drugs.

It now expects revenue from its pharmaceuticals unit to rise 10% to 12% in fiscal 2024, compared with its previous expectation of about 10% growth.

However, the company added the trend would not add to its profit. It raised its 2024 profit forecast slightly to a range of $6.50 to $6.75 per share, from $6.45 to $6.70 it had forecast previously.

Analysts on average were expecting a profit of $6.59 per share, according to Refinitiv.

Excluding one-off items, Cardinal Health reported a profit of $1.55 per share in the fourth quarter ended June 30, topping expectations of $1.49 per share.

Quarterly sales stood at $53.45 billion, $730 million above analysts' average estimate. (Reporting by Vaibhav Sadhamta and Mariam Sunny in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai and Shinjini Ganguli)