COPENHAGEN (Reuters) -Novo Nordisk has launched a new late-stage trial for its experimental next-generation obesity drug candidate, CagriSema, as it tries to reassure the market of its potential after disappointing data from two previous studies.
The Danish company made the announcement in an entry published on
“This study will look at how well CagriSema helps people living with obesity to lose weight and maintain the weight loss long-term,” Novo Nordisk said in the entry.
The company had positioned CagriSema as a more potent successor to its blockbuster obesity shot Wegovy, boosting market expectations that its weight-loss potential was greater than that of U.S. drugmaker Eli Lilly’s rival drug Mounjaro.
But lower-than-expected weight loss shown with CagriSema in data the company published in December and March knocked shares and stoked worries that Lilly may be gaining an edge over Novo in the obesity drugs market.
Novo said in February it planned to begin a new trial of CagriSema by June and expected it to last longer than the original 68-week study because the data it published in December suggested additional weight loss could be achieved over a longer period of time.
(Reporting by Maggie Fick and Stine Jacobsen; Editing by Kirsten Donovan and Terje Solsvik)
