Novo Nordisk shares plunge 20% after disappointing trial results

Shares of Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk

 plummeted roughly 20% on Friday after reporting results in a late-stage trial for its experimental CagriSema weight loss drug that missed expectations.

The maker of the wildly popular Wegovy obesity drug said its new drug candidate helped patients reduce their weight by 22.7%, below the 25% it told CNBC it had previously forecast.

Shares of rival obesity drug maker Eli Lilly  jumped more than 5% in early trading.

The trial results deal a blow to expectations that CagriSema could become a next-generation obesity drug. The two-drug injectable treatment combines semaglutide, the active ingredient in Wegovy, along with amylin analog Cagrilintide, a nascent form of weight loss treatment.

In comments to CNBC, however, Novo said that CagriSema had outperformed Wegovy in weight reduction and that its performance was “on par with best-in-class treatments.”

Weight loss treatment

“We are encouraged by the weight loss profile of CagriSema demonstrating superiority over both semaglutide and cagrilintide in monotherapy in the REDEFINE 1 trial. This was achieved even though only 57% of patients reached the highest CagriSema dose,” Martin Holst Lange, executive vice president for Development at Novo Nordisk, said in a separate press release.

“With the insights obtained from the REDEFINE 1 trial, we plan to further explore the additional weight loss potential of CagriSema,” he added.

The phase three trial was based on around 3,400 people with obesity, or who were overweight with one or more comorbidities, and took place over 68 weeks. It followed a flexible protocol, meaning patients could modify their dosage throughout the trial. By the end, just 57.3% of patients treated with CagriSema were on the highest dose.

Novo said that topline and full results will be presented next year and that it expects regulatory submission of the drug by the end of 2025. Results from a second phase 3 trial, REDEFINE 2, based on adults with type 2 diabetes who are either obese or overweight, are also expected during the first half of next year.