Novo Nordisk shares tumble as weight-loss drug trial data disappoints

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Novo Nordisk, one of Europe’s biggest companies, lost more than a quarter of its value on Friday after its latest obesity drug missed the drugmaker’s target of an average weight loss of 25 percent.

CagriSema helped patients lose 22.7 percent of their body weight in late-stage trials, Novo Nordisk Eli Lilly narrowly beat the results of rival treatment Mounjaro, said Friday.

Martin Holst Lange, Novo Nordisk’s executive vice-president of development, said only 57 percent of patients received the maximum dose of the drug. “We are encouraged by the weight-loss profile of CagriSema,” he said.

The company’s shares fell as much as 27 percent in mid-morning trading in Denmark.

Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly are vying for dominance in a market that is expected to grow to $24 billion in just three years to 2023, according to data analytics firm Equia.

Novo Nordisk had hoped its “next-generation” weight-loss drug could lead the field, after its shares struggled to keep pace with Eli Lilly and it suffered a setback from disappointing results for an experimental weight-loss pill in September.

“Cagrisema is really important to us,” chief executive Lars Frugergaard Jørgensen told the Financial Times in November. “This is a next-generation product and has the potential to be best in class.”

Patients taking Mounjaro lost an average of 22.5 percent of their weight in a Phase 3 trial when taken as part of a regimen of improved diet and exercise. Those in Wegovi, made by Novo Nordisk, lost about 15 percent on average under the same conditions.

About 40 percent of patients in the CagriSema trial lost 25 percent of their weight at 68 weeks.

CagriSema combines semaglutide, the active ingredient of Wegovi and Ozempic, with cagrilintide, which makes people feel fuller for longer.

A trial of 3,417 people receiving a weekly injection found that the most common side effects were gastrointestinal, most of which were mild and moderate and decreased over time.

This is a developing story