Novo Nordisk stock falls as weight loss drug fails to beat Eli Lilly
Novo Nordisk The stock fell 15% on Monday after it said its next-generation weight-loss drug failed to meet its core goal of showing it was noninferior to other drugs. Eli Lillyrival drug.
Novo said in a statement Monday morning that its drug CallSema failed to meet its primary endpoint of showing noninferiority in weight loss after 84 weeks compared to Eli Lilly’s rival drug tirzepatide.
Tirzepatide is the active ingredient in Lilly’s mega-blockbuster drugs Mounjaro and Zepbound, and has surpassed Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide, sold as Ozempic and Wegovy, in U.S. prescriptions.
Novo’s Copenhagen-listed shares were last seen down 15% at 256 Danish kroner, falling to their lowest level since June 2021.
Eli LillyIts shares rose 3.5% in premarket trading.
Novo Nordisk ADRs are well below the performance of Eli Lilly shares.
Novo said that patients taking a 2.4 mg dose of ÇağrıSema achieved a 23% weight loss after 84 weeks, while this rate was 25.5% with a 15 mg dose of tirzepatide.
It was stated that Novo is exploring additional trials, including higher dose combinations, to test ÇağrıSema. The company has high hopes for the drug, which combines cagrilintide with semaglutide, another hormone secreted by the pancreas that affects appetite.
“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 additional clinically relevant weight loss effects superior to those observed with GLP-1 biology alone,” said Chief Scientific Officer Martin Holst Lange, adding that further trials “will evaluate the full weight loss potential of CagriSema.”
Even so, Monday’s trial result is another blow to the Danish drugmaker as it falls short of a drug already on the market and comes after its stock tumbled nearly 50% in 2025.
Earlier this month, Novo predicted that sales and profit growth would fall between 5% and 13% in 2026 as the company turns to competition, prices fall in the US and Wegovy and Ozempic lose exclusivity in certain markets.
“People should wait for the decline before they go up again,” CEO Mike Doustdar told CNBC at the time.
