By Peter Loftus
Novo Nordisk's American depositary receipts tumbled almost 6% Friday after the drugmaker reported mixed results from a study of an experimental weight-loss pill.
The pill, monlunabant, helped people lose weight in the mid-stage study, but Leerink Partners called the magnitude "underwhelming," and analysts noted that some patients had anxiety and other neuropsychiatric side effects.
Novo, which makes a leading injected anti-obesity drug Wegovy, will continue to test the experimental pill with hopes of bringing it to market.
Its stock-price decline underscores just how closely investors are following the industry race to develop a weight-loss pill that may be less expensive and easier to manufacture than injected drugs like Wegovy and Eli Lilly's Zepbound.
Conversely, shares of rival weight-loss pill developers Eli Lilly, Structure Therapeutics and Viking Therapeutics all rose Friday.
Lilly, Novo and Sanofi came into the crosshairs of regulators Friday when the U.S. Federal Trade Commission warned that it might sue them over their roles in rising insulin prices. The FTC said Friday it had sued pharmacy-benefit managers, accusing them of profiting from high insulin prices.
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 20, 2024 13:17 ET (17:17 GMT)
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