Novo Nordisk’s next-gen obesity drug results a letdown for investors

CHICAGO — Late-stage results of Novo Nordisk’s obesity candidate CagriSema suggest the drug is comparable to Eli Lilly’s Zepbound on safety and efficacy, further data indicating that CagriSema may not be the standout treatment that investors had hoped for.

Novo previously reported that patients on CagriSema lost 20% of their weight in a 68-week Phase 3 trial when looking at all participants, a similar level of weight loss seen in Zepbound studies.

Novo is planning a longer CagriSema study to see if patients can continue to lose more weight, but full results released Sunday show that the rate of weight loss started to plateau at the end of 68 weeks, raising questions around how much more weight patients would be able to lose.