| It was a busy week for Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk. Things kicked off with news about CagriSema, Novo’s GLP-1 plus amylin therapy. The Danish pharma company announced that in a head-to-head trial testing CagriSema against Lilly’s Zepbound in obesity, Zepbound came out on top. Patients who were taking CagriSema lost 20.2% of their weight after 84 weeks, while those taking Lilly’s drug lost 23.6%.
Then, Novo followed up with results about UBT251, its triple-G agonist going after the GLP-1, GIP and glucagon receptors. In a Phase 2 study, the data looked slightly better than Lilly’s more advanced triple-G, retatrutide, in its own similar trial. (These drugs were not pitted head-to-head.) Novo’s study was conducted by its partner United Therapeutics in China and enrolled about 200 patients. Despite the positive results for Novo, UBT251 will likely reach the market after retatrutide.
And in a third trial, looking at oral GLP-1 drugs, Lilly’s orforglipron again came out on top over Novo’s Rybelsus pill. These data came from a trial conducted by Lilly in type 2 diabetes patients that isn’t intended to support approval, but could encourage doctors to prescribe orforglipron off-label. Patients given 12 mg or 36 mg of orforglipron for a year had their blood sugar levels cut by 1.71% and 1.91%, respectively. Those given Novo’s drug at 7 mg and 14 mg doses saw reductions in blood sugar of 1.23% and 1.47%, respectively.
So what does this all mean? Senior biopharma journalist Elizabeth Cairns attempted to answer that question, and how Novo Nordisk and new CEO Maziar Mike Doustdar are navigating a “strategic conundrum.” Despite reaching heights that began to reshape Denmark’s economy in 2023, Novo’s stock price is now approaching a five-year low. Read more here. |
