Novo Nordisk announced promising mid-stage results of its experimental drug amycretin in diabetes patients on Tuesday, and its Denmark-listed shares rose almost 4 per cent as investors hoped the company could regain its lead in the weight-loss market.
The outcomes come after the significant time that the Danish drugmaker, which, as the day before, gave the worst result of semaglutide, the active component in its blockbuster obesity drug Wegovy, in highly anticipated Alzheimer trials, effectively fading chances that GLP-1 drugs would enter a massive market around the mind-wasting illness.
As the patents of semaglutide may expire in 2031-2032 and with intensifying competition, Novo is under increasing pressure to demonstrate that its next round of obesity therapies can maintain pace.
One of the most actively monitored next-generation candidates of Novo is amycretin, an anti-GLP-1 and amylin hormone, regarded as a potential “best-in-class” therapy that would be able to succeed its CagriSema program and enable to grow beyond semaglutide.
Competitor Eli Lilly is pushing on with its own amylin-based drug, eloralintide, which is also entering late-stage testing after assisting patients to lose up to 20 percent of their weight in a mid-stage trial.
The mid-stage study of Novo compared once-weekly subcutaneous and oral amycretin to placebo in 448 individuals with type 2 diabetes not sufficiently controlled on metformin with or without an SGLT2 inhibitor, a common class of diabetes treatment.
BMO Capital Markets’ analyst Evan Seigerman said that “Though not enough to completely change the narrative for Novo, today’s amycretin data in T2D (both SQ and oral) mark a step in the right direction for the company.”
Amycretin helped type 2 patients of diabetes patients lose up to 14.5 percent of their body weight over 36 weeks, along with weekly injections, far outperforming a placebo. The weight loss of up to 10.1 percent was achieved in the oral version.
The drug also experienced statistically significant decreases in the level of blood glucose, and up to 89.1 percent of patients recorded HbA1c levels of less than 7 percent.
Novo reported that the side effect was primarily mild gastrointestinal issues, and it will initiate late-stage trials in 2026.
Chief Scientific Officer Martin Holst Lange said in a video posted on LinkedIn that “This is the first time amycretin is tested in a type 2 diabetes population. This could represent a breakthrough for people living with type 2 diabetes, obesity, and related comorbidities.”
Next-gen obesity treatments, including dual agonists like amycretin, are also under close observation by analysts regarding how they can enhance weight loss whilst preserving lean muscle compared to GLP-1 drugs alone.
