Novo Nordisk shares fall 19% after disappointing test results; Lilly jumps to the grocery store
Novo Nordisk Ozempic and Wegovy boxes appear in the pharmacy.
Holly Adams | Reuters
Shares of the Danish pharmaceutical giant New Nordisk It fell more than 24% on Friday after reporting results from a late-stage trial for its experimental weight-loss drug CagriSema, which missed expectations.
The maker of the wildly popular obesity drug Wegovy said its new drug candidate helped patients lose 22.7% of their weight, down from the 25% previously predicted by CNBC.
The stock pared some losses to fall around 19.35% at 1:10 p.m. London time. Shares of a rival obesity drug maker Eli Lilly jumped 10% in premarket trade but traded 5% higher.
The trial results undermine expectations that CagriSema could become a next-generation obesity drug. The two-drug injection treatment combines Wegovy’s active ingredient, semaglutide, with the factor analogue Cagrilintide. an emerging form of weight loss treatment.
A phase III trial was conducted over 68 weeks in nearly 3,400 people who were obese or overweight with one or more comorbidities.
However, in comments to CNBC, Novo said CagriSema outperformed Wegovy in weight reduction and that its performance was “on par with best-in-class treatments.”
“We are encouraged by the weight loss profile of CagriSema, which demonstrated superiority over both semaglutide and cagrilintide in monotherapy in the REDEFINE 1 trial. This was achieved despite only 57% of patients reaching the highest dose of CagriSema,” Executive Vice President Martin Holst Lange Novo For Development at Nordisk, said in a separate press release.
“With the insights gained from the REDEFINE 1 trial, we plan to further explore CagriSema’s weight loss potential,” he said.
Novo added that the main and full results will be available next year, and that it expects the drug’s regulatory submission by the end of 2025. Results of a second phase 3 trial, REDEFINE 2, based on adults with obesity or type 2 diabetes. overweight, expected in the first half of next year.
“Performance as expected”
In a note on Friday, JP Morgan acknowledged that while the results were disappointing, it continued to see strong potential for the emerging factor analog drug group, which may be more tolerable than traditional GLP-1 weight loss treatments.
“Although the headline weight loss for the CagriSema combo was lower than expected, potentially because patients were lowering their doses for the combination, we believe the Amylin mono headline data show efficacy in line with expectations and good tolerability, supporting approval of the Amylin mono treatment approach,” – analysts wrote.
They added that the findings lend support to the competitor’s analogue drugs of a similar factor Zealand PharmaThey called the treatment potentially more effective than CagriSema. Zeeland CEO Adam Steensberg told CNBC in October that Petrilintide is its “crown jewel” and looking for a partner to market.
JP Morgan now says it expects a partnership as early as next year.
This comes as competition continues to heat up in the weight loss drug market with more players joins the fight amid growing demand.
Earlier this month, Novo suffered another setback head-to-head clinical trial Eli Lilly’s Zepbound showed superior weight loss compared to Wegovy.
The Lilly-sponsored trial found that Zepbound helped patients lose an average of 20.2%, or about 50 pounds, after 72 weeks, while Wegovy helped them lose an average of 13.7% less over the same period. Novo said at the time that it was waiting for full details.
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