Novo Nordisk Shares Drop 15% After CagriSema Trial Underperforms

Novo Nordisk's shares tumbled more than 15 percent on Monday in Copenhagen after the Danish pharmaceutical company disclosed disappointing results from a late-stage trial of its experimental obesity drug CagriSema, which underperformed compared to Eli Lilly's rival treatment tirzepatide.

The trial, known as REDEFINE 4, involved 809 participants with obesity and at least one related comorbidity. Over 84 weeks, patients receiving CagriSema, a combination of semaglutide and cagrilintide, achieved an average weight loss of 23 percent on an efficacy estimand basis and 20.2 percent on a treatment-regimen estimand basis. In contrast, those taking a 15-milligram dose of tirzepatide, the active ingredient in Eli Lilly's Mounjaro and Zepbound, lost 25.5 percent and 23.6 percent, respectively. The open-label study, where participants knew which drug they were receiving, failed to meet its primary endpoint of demonstrating noninferiority for CagriSema against tirzepatide.

Novo Nordisk described the safety profile of CagriSema as well-tolerated, with most adverse events being mild to moderate gastrointestinal issues that improved over time, similar to other drugs in the GLP-1 agonist class....