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Novo Nordisk (NVO) stock jumped 12% in pre-market trading Friday after it released promising results of an early-stage weight loss drug trial.
The Danish pharmaceutical giant announced Friday that a small clinical trial found that 20 milligram once-weekly injections of its amycretin obesity drug helped obese and overweight patients lose 22% of their body weight in 36 weeks.
“We are very encouraged by the subcutaneous phase 1b/2a results for amycretin in people living with overweight or obesity,” said Martin Lange, executive vice president for development at Novo. “The results seen in the trial support the weight lowering potential of this novel unimolecular GLP-1 and amylin receptor agonist, amycretin, that we have previously seen with the oral formulation.”
Amycretin is what’s known as a “unimolecular long-acting GLP-1 and amylin receptor agonist.” Essentially, it’s a combination of two hormones that regulate appetite and blood sugar levels. Popular GLP-1 agonists include Novo Nordisk’s own Wegovy and Ozempic, and Eli Lilly’s (LLY) Zepbound and Mounjaro.
Based on the latest results, Novo Nordisk said it’s now planning further clinical development of amycretin for obese and overweight adults.
Findings from a small phase 1 clinical trial of oral amycretin last September suggested that the pill could lead to more and faster weight loss than popular weekly injection Wegovy.
Novo Nordisk said that patients that took a once-daily 50mg dose of amycretin lost an average of 10.4% of their weight in just three months, according to an abstract of the study. Trial participants that took two pills lost even more weight, 13.1% at three months.
For comparison, a larger clinical trial of Novo Nordisk’s popular weight-loss drug Wegovy found that it helped users lose about 15% of their body weight over 68 weeks.
It’s worth noting, however, that larger phase II, III, and IV trials, involving thousands more participants, could return different results.
— Bruce Gil contributed to this article.