Wegovy trial result gives boost to Novo Nordisk amid U.S. market woes
A combination image shows Zepbound’s injection item, Eli Lilly’s weight loss medication and Wegovy boxes made by Novo Nordisk.
Hollie Adams | Reuters
The new trial data shows that Novo Nordisk’s weight loss drug Wegovy reveals rival treatments in reducing the risk of heart status with good news for the Danish drug giant while fighting the challenges in the US’s most important market.
On Sunday, the company, as Wegovy, said that the continuous use of the drug semagluid, which was sold to consumers, led to a decrease in heart attack, stroke or death in overweight people with obesity and cardiovascular disease or overweight people.
Tirzepathide is an active component in Zepbound and Mounjaro, the drugs produced by the main rival in the war of producing the market leader of the US company Eli Lilly-Novo Nordisk.
Contrary to a Randomized control work, which is a “gold standard” to evaluate the treatment efficiency, the company came from the real world work. The number of patients who recorded such incidents was very low, reaching 0.1% for Wegovy users and 0.4% for those with thyrzepathide.
However, the company said that “the heart protective benefits seen with Wegovy are specific to the Semaglid molecule and therefore can not be extended to other GLP-1 or GIP/GLP-1-based treatments”.
GLP-1 or Glucagon-like peptit-1 receptor agonists refers to the interval of the drug used to treat Type-2 diabetes and obesity by imitating hormones produced in the intestine to suppress a person’s appetite and regulate blood sugar. This includes a well-known Semaglid-based Özempic designed as Novo Nordisk’s Type-2 diabetes treatment.
In recent years, the major growth of weight loss drug use has been drawn to investors in the hunting, which is ongoing for both leading drugs and potential new competitors.
The effect of different drugs on weight loss and heart conditions, liver and alzheimer’s disease to apnea and alcohol dependence on various other conditions, usually a catalyst for stock price movements. Traders have recently evaluated Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk’s efforts to develop oral pills for obesity and eliminate injection needs.
Novo Nordisk shares were about 3% higher on Monday.
Morningstar’s head summarizing strategist Michael Field said that a significant decrease in the risk of heart attacks by Wegovy could be a potential “game changer” for Novo Nordiskis, but the Monday response was encouraged, but the Monday response was encouraged, but not moving. “
“It is important to remember that this is only trial data and that competitors have a history of leaving each other over and over and over again. However, the health sector is one of the cheapest in Europe, with the interaction of investors especially by the great traditional pharmaceutical giants. This announcement shows that you should never come before these companies are innovating.”
Quilter Cheviot’s health analyst Sheena Berry said that the latest heart disease data could be a “positive development” for Novo Nordisk, but it is not possible to make a definite conclusions about the comparison of Wegovy and Tyrzipathy in the war between Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly.
“After a difficult period, Novo helps Nordisk in terms of promotion. As a result, investors will be ready today after the difficult period to see if such events can act as a catalyst for improvement.” He said.
Novo Nordisk’s US struggles
The great success of Wegovy and Özempic pushed Novo Nordisk to the summit of the largest listed companies in Europe at the end of 2023 and most of the momentum caused by the company’s expansion in the USA
He has lost this title since then, and has lost his share price in 2024 and 10% in 2025 and 40% in 2025. Danish last week In part, Novo has halved the annual economic growth forecast for the US’s decreasing market share and low pharmaceutical export expectations.
Novo Nordisk, White House tariffs and US President Donald Trump’s companies were sweeping the sector uncertainty in the pressure of reducing drug prices and forcing the production of production. Global competition in the field of weight loss continues to grow, and companies face the difficulty of imitator combining treatments.
Last month, Novo reported the major sales growth in the second quarter earnings, but still marked the second half sales growth forecasts and said he would directly focus on sales to the consumer to fight the difficulty of imitators.
Last week, Denmark halved the annual economic growth forecast, partly with the decrease in Novo Nordisk’s growth expectations. Although companies such as the country’s economic ministry, novo Nordisk now have more clarity about tariff rates after the EU-US trade agreement, he said that he remained as “significant unpredictability depending on the policy of the US administration.”
Analysts said that last month was not collected on the news of the trade agreement of European pharmaceutical stocks, because investors were careful about the investigation of the White House on the ongoing section of the White House, including pharmaceuticals about the impact of various imports on US national security.
In a note last week, UBS analysts said that after the movement by the US pharmacy chain CVS in May to expand access to Wegovy, the drug “began to see the growth potentially plateaus.” This was compatible with previous expectations “,” the continuous presence of compounds and relatively powerful Zepbound performance, “they added.
– Karen Gilchrist from CNBC contributed to this story.
