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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 anti-obesity drug missed the drugmaker’s target of an average weight loss of 25 percent.
CagriSema helped patients lose an average of 22.7 percent of their body weight in a late-stage study. Novo Nordisk said Friday, narrowly beating results from Mounjaro, a competing treatment from Eli Lilly.
Martin Holst Lange, executive vice president of development at Novo Nordisk, said only 57 percent of patients received the highest dose of the drug. “We are encouraged by CagriSema’s weight loss profile,” he said.
The company’s shares lost up to 27 percent in morning trading in Denmark.
Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly are vying for dominance in a market that has grown sevenfold in just three years to $24 billion in 2023, according to data analytics firm Iqvia.
Novo Nordisk had hoped its “next-generation” weight-loss drug could come out on top after its shares struggled to keep up with Eli Lilly and the company suffered a setback in September with disappointing results for an experimental weight-loss pill.
“CagriSema is really important for us,” chief executive Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen told the Financial Times in November. “It is a next-generation product and has the potential to be best in class.”
Patients who received Mounjaro lost an average of 22.5 percent of their weight in phase 3 trials when taken as part of improved diet and exercise. Those on Wegovy, also made by Novo Nordisk, lost an average of about 15 percent under similar conditions.
About 40 percent of patients in the CagriSema study achieved a 25 percent 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 study of 3,417 people who received a weekly injection found that the most common side effects were gastrointestinal in nature, the vast majority of which were mild and moderate and resolved over time.
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