Novo jumps after Wegovy pill shows significant weight loss in trial, Ozempic found to reduce risk of heart attacks and strokes

Danish GLP-1 trailblazer Novo Nordisk was trading as much as 7% higher early on Thursday after releasing two positive study results.

Arguably the most commercially significant of the two, Novo yesterday revealed that its oral semaglutide treatment (“Wegovy in a pill”) delivered “16.6% weight loss in people with obesity” in a new study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine. Results also showed that one in three participants reported losing 20% or more of their body weight.

According to the company’s press release, the Wegovy pill is the first oral GLP-1 treatment submitted to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for chronic weight management, and the drugmaker has now started production in the US.

A total of 307 adults took part in the 64-week study, which found that:

...if all participants adhered to treatment, average weight loss of 16.6% was achieved by people taking oral semaglutide 25 mg compared to 2.7% for placebo at 64 weeks, with over a third (34.4%) experiencing a weight loss of 20% or more, versus 2.9% for placebo.

Crucially, Novo stated that these results were comparable with previous trial results of injectable Wegovy.

In an interview with CNBC, the company’s Chief Science Officer, Martin Holst Lange, said: “Our job was to show that, with the tablet, we could get the same efficacy and the same safety and tolerability as we can with the injectable. That we have now done.”

Separately, Novo Nordisk reported this morning that the once-weekly injectable version of Ozempic was “associated with a 23% reduced risk of heart attack, stroke and death in people with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease on Medicare versus dulaglutide.”

Novo’s shares have been under intense pressure over the last year, as competition from rival pharma giants like Eli Lilly and compounders such as Hims & Hers has weighed on the company’s market position.