Novo’s next-gen obesity drug shows positive results, heads to late-stage testing

Novo Nordisk said on Tuesday its experimental obesity drug, amycretin, showed statistically significant weight loss of up to 14.5 per cent at 36 weeks in patients with type 2 diabetes in a mid-stage study.

The drugmaker’s Denmark-listed shares were up 2.5 per cent.

Amycretin, the company’s next-generation obesity drug, has a dual-mode action, targeting the gut hormone GLP-1 and a pancreatic hormone called amylin.

The study tested once-weekly subcutaneous and oral amycretin compared to placebo in 448 people with type 2 diabetes inadequately controlled on metformin with or without an SGLT2 inhibitor, a common class of diabetes treatment, Novo said.

The data validates the potential best-in-class profile of amycretin, said Martin Holst Lange, chief scientific officer and executive vice president of research and development at Novo Nordisk.

The company said the drug appeared safe and well tolerated, with mostly mild-to-moderate gastrointestinal side-effects. It plans to start late-stage trials in 2026.

Amycretin is one of Novo’s next-generation experimental drugs that might allow it to extend its earnings beyond its 2031 to 2032 semaglutide patent expiries, HSBC analysts had said in a note earlier this year.

Weekly injections of amycretin had helped overweight patients lose 22 per cent of their weight in 36 weeks, according to early-stage trial results published in January.

Last year, the pill version helped patients lose up to 13.1 per cent of their weight after 12 weeks in early-stage trial.

(Reporting by Mariam Sunny and Mrinalika Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)