Novo Suffers Wegovy Trial Setback as US Plans to Cut Price
- Patients lost 20.7% of body weight, disappointing investors
- US plan to target Wegovy in price negotiations hits shares
Drugmakers are looking for new approaches to increase the effectiveness and convenience of popular anti-obesity medications.
Photographer: Carsten Snejbjerg/BloombergNovo Nordisk A/S’s blockbuster drug Wegovy was targeted for price cuts by the US government and suffered a setback in a new trial, adding to growing threats to the Danish company’s early dominance in the surging market for new weight-loss treatments.
Patients who took triple the normal dose of semaglutide, the main ingredient in Wegovy, for 72 weeks lost 20.7% of their body weight, Novo said Friday in a statement. That compared with a 17.5% reduction among people who got a standard dose — but was less than either the highest dose of Eli Lilly & Co.’s Zepbound or the drugmaker’s experimental retatrutide in separate trials.