Novo Nordisk stock fell 15% Monday after it stated its next-generation weight loss drug did not meet its key purpose of exhibiting that it wasn’t inferior to Eli Lilly’s rival drug.
The drug, CagriSema, did not obtain its main endpoint of demonstrating non-inferiority on weight loss when put next to Eli Lilly’s rival drug tirzepatide after 84 weeks, Novo stated in a press release Monday morning.
Tirzepatide is the energetic ingredient in Lilly’s mega-blockbuster medicines Mounjaro and Zepbound, which have overtaken Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide, offered as Ozempic and Wegovy, in U.S. prescriptions.
Novo’s Copenhagen-listed shares had been final seen down 15% at 256 Danish kroner.
Eli Lilly‘s stock rose 3.5% in premarket buying and selling.
Novo Nordisk ADR’s are severely underperforming Eli Lilly shares.
Patients taking a 2.4 mg dose of CagriSema achieved a weight loss of 23% after 84 weeks in contrast to 25.5% with a 15 mg dose of tirzepatide, Novo stated.
Novo is exploring further trials to check CagriSema, together with higher-dose combos, it stated. The firm has excessive hopes for the drug, which mixes semaglutide and cagrilintide, one other hormone launched within the pancreas that impacts urge for food.
“CagriSema has the potential to be the first GLP-1/amylin-combination product to reach the market for people living with obesity, documenting that cagrilintide adds to the existing benefits of semaglutide and offers clinically meaningful additive weight loss effects superior to what has been observed with GLP-1 biology alone,” stated Chief Scientific Officer Martin Holst Lange, including that additional trials would “assess the full weight-loss potential of CagriSema.”
Even so, Monday’s trial result’s one other blow to the Danish drugmaker as it fell brief in opposition to a drug already available on the market, and comes after the stock fell almost 50% in 2025.
Earlier this month, Novo predicted that its gross sales and revenue progress would decline by between 5% and 13% in 2026, as the corporate navigates competitors, decrease costs within the U.S., and the loss of exclusivity for Wegovy and Ozempic in sure markets.
“People should expect that it goes down before it comes back up,” CEO Mike Doustdar told CNBC on the time.
