Shares of Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk soared to a record high on Tuesday after study results showed its obesity treatment reduced the risk of heart attack or stroke by 20%. . Preliminary results of the study show that patients taking the drug Wegovy (semaglutide) – prescribed for weight loss – are 20% less likely to suffer from a cardiovascular event such as a heart attack or stroke, compared to compared to those who receive a placebo, the laboratory said in a press release published on its site.
“We are very satisfied with the results,” said Martin Holst Lange, CEO in charge of development at Novo Nordisk – world number one in insulin. Around 2:00 p.m. GMT on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange, the title took nearly 18% to 1,286 Danish kroner. “Although the results of the study (…) have yet to be confirmed by careful peer review, they demonstrate the urgent need to offer patients suffering from obesity this effective and safe drug in order to prevent future diseases”, underlined Simon Cork, doctor and lecturer in physiology at Anglia Ruskin University in the United Kingdom, who notes that obesity and its consequences on health cost the British public health system “more than 6 billion books per year.
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“This will not only allow health organizations to achieve significant financial savings, but also the people concerned to benefit from a better quality of life,” he added. Danish company Novo Nordisk, which produces both Wegovy and Ozempic – another anti-diabetic treatment – reported a 39% rise in first-quarter profits in May on sales of obesity. In mid-July, the European Medicines Agency, headquartered in Amsterdam, announced that it was examining “the data on the risks of suicidal thoughts and self-harm with drugs (…), including Ozempic (semaglutide), Saxenda (liraglutide) and Wegovy (semaglutide)”.
Novo Nordisk expects to file an application for authorization this year to extend the Wegovy indication in the United States and the European Union, according to the press release. Detailed results of the trial will be presented at a scientific conference later in 2023. Competition for obesity treatments is fierce in the pharmaceutical industry: more than a billion people worldwide are obese, according to the WHO.
