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Novo Nordisk is looking for the “maximum potential weight loss” that can be achieved from the potential drug cagrisema. It is trying to convince disappointing investors that drugs have a bright future.
The Danish group lost its market capitalization of 90 billion euros in December after Cagrisema missed its target of an average weight loss of 25%. Only 40% of participants achieved that goal.
Instead, the patient achieved an average weight loss of 22.7%, causing investors to worry that they could not beat the current blockbuster Zepbound, created by US rival Eli Lily.
Martin Lange, vice president of Novo Nordisk, said the company has extended one trial for Cagrisema and launched an even longer trial to discover what will happen if a patient takes it for more than 68 weeks.
He added that more detailed results from the previous Cagrisema trial, announced at the American Diabetes Association meeting on Sunday, showed that it provided more weight loss than Novo Nordisk’s existing product Wegovy, which has similar levels of side effects.
“What people haven’t seen in detail yet is the side effects profile. That’s how there’s a lot of comfort to that substantial weight loss potential.
More detailed data also show that medication appears to affect the patient’s cardiovascular health. Novo is investigating the effectiveness of this in another trial.
Previously unfortunate Cagrisema data is one of the factors that has cut Novo Nordisk’s stock price by more than 50% over the past year. Investors are also worried that Lily is losing market share.
The Danish drugmaker’s board of directors kicked out CEO Lars Flugerd Jorgensen last month.
Analysts have set a goal of 25% weight loss in the Cagrisema trial and criticised Novo Nordisk for not clearly explaining to the market that participants in the trial did not clearly explain to the market that it was not a fixed dose.
Lange said new data showed that those who lost more weight were often those who changed the dosage. “Their desire to lose weight is always very fast and not dramatic weight loss. It can be of no use.”
On Saturday, Novo Nordisk also published the results of two studies of Amycretin, another obesity drug that is in the early stages of the trial. It was found that the injectable version of the drug increases average weight loss by 24%, which is higher than the drugs on the market at this time.
Another found that patients taking the patient as a pill lost on average more than 13% of their body weight, but the company suggested that this could be higher if the drug was taken longer.
