Novo Nordisk shares shoot up amid promising results for anti-obesity pill | Pharmaceuticals industry

The value of the drug, Novo Nordisk, has increased by more than 6.5 billion pounds Sterling after research showed that its new anti-obeyity pill has caused weight loss almost as much as its Jab Wegovy, as it rushes against its American rival Eli Lilly to obtain tablet treatment on the market.

The shares of the Danish company have climbed more than 4.5% Thursday morning in the hope that it could recover lost market share against the generic versions Eli Lilly and cheaper from the GLP-1 medicines. Actions have dropped almost 60% in the past year as sales have slowed down.

Novo Nordisk said Thursday that a version of Pill once a day of Wegovy had suffered a loss of “significant weight” in a clinical trial, with almost one in three participants losing 20% ​​or more weight. The side effects were similar to the injectable version.

This is the first Oral GLP-1 drug submitted to the American regulator, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the company expects a decision on the question of whether the FDA will approve it for use by the end of the year. Production has already started on the American sites of Novo Nordisk.

The Danish company goes from face to face with the daily pill of the weight loss of Eli Lilly, called Orforglipron. On Tuesday, the American drug manufacturer said that one in five people lost 20% or more over 72 weeks, in a trial of 3,127 adults. Patients lost 12.4% of their body weight on average in the highest dose.

Evi Lilly has developed Orforglipron with a compound he acquired from Japan Chugai Pharmaceutical in 2018. Eli Lilly plans to submit the pill to the regulator for approval later this year, and some analysts say that it could be accelerated by the FDA. Analysts estimate that cutting -edge sales of $ 10 billion a year for Orforglipron, Jefferies finding potential up to $ 25 billion.

Matthew Weston, analyst UBS, said he had seen a “clear leadership” for the Novo oral pill, “although Orforglipron always presents a threat to being a more evolving product, and therefore a potentially reduced price. Nor does it require fasting of 30 minutes, so can be considered a more practical option. ”

While anti-obeyer jabs, which imitate an intestinal hormone called GLP-1, were extremely popular, they are very expensive, especially after the recent increase in prices of Eli Lilly going up to 170% in the United Kingdom. The NHS has limited their availability to people with high clinical needs.

The versions of pills are easier to manufacture, store, distribute and administer and should be cheaper, paving the way for millions of additional people to lose weight at a time when obesity increases worldwide.

GLP-1 Drugmakers’ actions have largely outperformed pharmaceutical companies that do not make these weight loss drugs. The investment platform Etoro said on Tuesday that a novo nordisk basket, Eli Lilly, Sanofi, Teva and Hikma has increased by 106% in the past five years, while a basket of Johnson & Johnson, GSK, Abbvie and Bayer increased by 27%. Eli Lilly shares increased almost 395% during the period, while Novo Nordisk still has 69% in advance, despite its sharp decline in the past year.