Novo Nordisk trial with next-gen diabetes drug shows 15.7% weight loss but shares fall

Novo Nordisk NOVOb.CO said on Monday its experimental next-generation drug CagriSema helped overweight or obese patients with type 2 diabetes cut their weight by 15.7% after 68 weeks, but shares fell, likely on the lower-than-expected weight loss.

Investors and analysts have awaited the readout of Novo’s REDEFINE 2 late-stage trial to assess whether CagriSema is a more powerful successor to Novo’s blockbuster medicines, Ozempic for diabetes and Wegovy for obesity.

The readout comes after the company revealed results from a separate trial of CagriSema in December in overweight or obese patients without type 2 diabetes that also disappointed the market, wiping as much as $125 billion off its market value.

Shares were down 5% after Monday’s data release, on track for their worst day since the data release in December. Shares in rival diabetes and obesity drugmaker Eli Lilly LLY.N were up more than 1% in premarket trading.

The new data released on Monday was based on a trial of about 1,200 people with type 2 diabetes and a body mass index of or above 27 after 68 weeks. Like the REDEFINE 1 trial, REDEFINE 2 was based on a flexible protocol, allowing patients to modify their dosing throughout the trial, Novo Nordisk said in a statement.

After 68 weeks, 61.9% of patients treated with CagriSema were on the highest dose, it added.

If all those in the trial adhered to treatment with CagriSema, patients overall achieved weight loss of 15.7% after 68 weeks, compared to 3.1% with a placebo.

CagriSema is a weekly injection that combines semaglutide, which is the active ingredient in Wegovy and mimics the gut hormone GLP-1, and a separate molecule called cagrilintide that mimics the pancreatic hormone amylin, in a weekly injection.

The two hormones combined suppress hunger and help control patients’ blood glucose.