Eli Lilly #1 in GLP-1s after Novo disappointment
Shares of Novo Nordisk are down nearly 20% in early trading on Friday, on track for their worst one-day decline since the infamous Black Monday market crash in 1987.
The GLP-1 drug maker — best known for Ozempic — is getting crushed after saying that users of its experimental obesity shot didn’t lose as much weight as the company had expected. That’s great news for its competitors, namely Eli Lilly, whose Zepbound has not been cleanly unseated by this new Novo treatment (dubbed CagriSema). The drugmakers use different approaches to develop new weight-loss drugs, and right now it looks like Eli Lilly has the upper hand.
This disappointment means that one “overhang on Eli Lilly shares” is diminished, per JPMorgan, with a Citi analyst calling this outcome “nearly a best case-scenario” for Novo’s biggest competitor.
Novo is now negative on the year, while Eli Lilly shares have posted a more than 30% advance.
So in sum: Novo’s patients’ lack of weight loss is Novo’s loss, which is Eli Lilly’s gain.