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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 of 25 percent weight loss.
CagriSema helped patients lose an average of 22.7 percent of their body weight in late-stage trials, Novo Nordisk it said on Friday, narrowly beating the results of Mounjaro, a competing treatment from Eli Lilly.
Martin Holst Lange, executive vice president for development at Novo Nordisk, said only 57 percent of patients received the high 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 percent in mid-morning trading in Denmark.
Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly are competing for control in a market that has grown sevenfold in just three years to reach $24bn by 2023, according to data analytics firm Iqvia.
Novo Nordisk had hoped its “next-generation” weight-loss drug could lead the way, after its shares struggled to keep pace with Eli Lilly and suffered disappointing results from a weight-loss pill trial in September.
“CagriSema is really important to us,” chief executive Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen told the Financial Times in November. “It's a next-generation product and has the potential to be class-leading.”
Patients receiving Mounjaro lost an average of 22.5 percent of their weight in phase 3 trials when it was taken as part of a regimen of improved diet and exercise. Those on Wegovy, made by Novo Nordisk, lost about 15 percent in the same conditions.
About 40 percent of patients in the CagriSema trial experienced a 25 percent weight loss over 68 weeks.
CagriSema combines semaglutide, the active ingredient in Wegovy and Ozempic, and cagrilintide, another hormone that makes people feel fuller for longer.
A trial of 3,417 people who took the weekly injection found that the most common side effects were stomach upset, most of which were mild and moderate and decreased over time.
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