Weight-loss drug developers gain after Novo's obesity drug underperforms in study

Altimmune

20/12/2024 11:40

** Shares of some weight-loss drug developers rise
premarket, after Novo Nordisk's  NOVOb.CO  experimental
next-generation obesity drug achieves lower weight loss than
expected in a late-stage trial
    ** Novo says its drug, CagriSema, helped overweight patients
cut their weight by 22.7%, below the 25% it had expected
    ** Shares of Viking Therapeutics  VKTX.O  up 11.5%,
Structure Therapeutics  GPCR.O  up 7.1%, Altimmune  ALT.O  up
2.2% and Amgen  AMGN.O  climb 5.5% before the bell
    ** U.S.-listed shares of Novo fall 22.4%, while rival Eli
Lilly  LLY.N  climbs 10%
    ** Investors and analysts had eagerly awaited this data as a
test of Novo's case that it has a strong pipeline of drugs to
follow Wegovy in the fiercely competitive anti-obesity market
    ** Lilly's obesity drug, sold as Zepbound in the U.S., led
to an average weight loss of nearly 23% in clinical trials
    ** Up to last close, AMGN down 9.3%, GPCR down 26.5% and ALT
down 27.3% YTD

    

 (Reporting by Christy Santhosh)
 ((Christy.Santhosh@thomsonreuters.com))