Novo Nordisk Soars on Promising Results for New Weight Loss Drug
Novo Nordisk’s (NYSE: NVO) stock surged over 12% in pre-market trading Friday after the company announced favorable early-stage clinical trial results for its latest weight loss drug, amycretin.
The once-weekly injection, similar to Novo’s blockbuster drugs Wegovy and Ozempic, demonstrated up to 22% weight loss over 36 weeks in a trial involving 125 participants. The highest dose, 20 mg, yielded the most significant results. While Novo’s earlier pill version of amycretin showed disappointing outcomes last year, the injectable version appears poised to address gaps in the obesity treatment market.
Amycretin mimics the GLP-1 hormone to curb hunger and includes an additional hormone targeting the pancreas. While its side effects—such as nausea and vomiting—mirror those of similar treatments, analysts like Mizuho’s Jared Holz view the results as a major positive, noting amycretin could become a leading obesity therapy if efficacy holds in larger trials.
Novo Nordisk plans to launch further trials in adults with obesity to validate the promising findings. “We are very encouraged by the subcutaneous phase 1b/2a results,” said Martin Lange, executive vice president for development. “These results support the weight-lowering potential of this novel GLP-1 and amylin receptor agonist.”
As the competitive obesity drug market heats up, amycretin offers Novo an opportunity to sustain its leadership and rebound from the underwhelming performance of CagriSema, a product partly based on semaglutide, the active ingredient in Wegovy and Ozempic.
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