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Novo Nordisk, one of Europe’s largest companies, lost more than a quarter of its value on Friday after its latest obesity drug missed the drugmaker’s goal for an average of 25 per cent weight loss.
CagriSema helped patients lose an average of 22.7 per cent of their body weight in a late-stage trial, Novo Nordisk said on Friday, only marginally beating the results of rival Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro.
Martin Holst Lange, executive vice-president for development at Novo Nordisk, said that only 57 per cent of patients had received the highest dose of the drug. “We are encouraged by the weight-loss profile of CagriSema,” he said.
The company’s shares were down as much as 27 per cent in mid-morning trading in Denmark.
Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly are competing for dominance in a market that grew sevenfold in just three years to $24bn in 2023, according to data analytics firm Iqvia.
Novo Nordisk had hoped its “next generation” weight-loss drug could lead the field, after its shares had 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 for us,” chief executive Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen told the Financial Times in November. “It’s a next-generation product and it has the potential to be best in class.”
Patients receiving Mounjaro lost an average of 22.5 per cent of their weight in phase 3 trials when taken as part of a regime of improved diet and exercise. Those on Wegovy, also made by Novo Nordisk, lost an average of about 15 per cent in similar conditions.
About 40 per cent of patients in the CagriSema trial achieved 25 per cent weight loss over the 68 weeks.
CagriSema combines semaglutide, the active ingredient in Wegovy and Ozempic, with cagrilintide, another hormone that makes people feel fuller for longer.
The trial of 3,417 people taking the weekly injection found that the most common side effects were gastrointestinal, the vast majority of which were mild and moderate and diminished over time.
This is a developing story