Novo Nordisk shares fall as Lilly stock climbs
Shares of Novo Nordisk plunged 15% on Monday after the company announced that its next-generation obesity drug failed to meet a key trial objective against a rival treatment from Eli Lilly.
Novo said its experimental drug CagriSema did not achieve its primary endpoint of demonstrating non-inferiority in weight loss compared with Lilly’s tirzepatide after 84 weeks of treatment, News.Az reports, citing CNBC.
Tirzepatide is the active ingredient in Lilly’s blockbuster medications Mounjaro and Zepbound, which have surpassed Novo’s semaglutide-based treatments — Ozempic and Wegovy — in U.S. prescription volumes.
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Novo’s Copenhagen-listed shares were last down 15% at 256 Danish kroner, marking their lowest level since June 2021. Meanwhile, Eli Lilly’s stock rose 3.5% in premarket trading.
According to the company, patients taking a 2.4 mg dose of CagriSema achieved an average weight loss of 23% after 84 weeks, compared with a 25.5% reduction among patients taking a 15 mg dose of tirzepatide.
Despite the setback, Novo said it remains optimistic about CagriSema’s potential. The drug combines semaglutide with cagrilintide, a pancreatic hormone that influences appetite. The company is conducting additional studies, including trials evaluating higher-dose combinations, to further assess the treatment’s weight-loss efficacy.
By Nijat Babayev
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