By Callum Keown

Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk both shared good news on their weight-loss drug offerings but the stocks had very different reactions early Monday.

Lilly shares were rising more than 4%, the second best performer in the S&P 500 in early premarket trading behind Micron. But it was a different story for Danish titan Novo, which was down early Monday.

The U.S. pharmaceutical company said its pill Foundayo was associated with significant weight loss in women at every stage of menopause, in a release Sunday. The findings were based on analysis of 1,500 women taking part in the company's ATTAIN-1 and ATTAIN-2 Phase 3 clinical trials.

That wasn't all. Lilly also revealed that its next-generation obesity drug retatrutide showed meaningful improvements in knee osteoarthritis pain and sleep apnea as well as substantial weight loss, in Phase 3 trials.

Its Danish rival also had a positive update. Novo said its Wegovy obesity pill has hit more than 3 million prescriptions since it became available in early January. The company noted that's equivalent to one new prescription every five seconds -- and one of the biggest U.S. pharmaceutical product launches in history.

As impressive as that sounds, the stock was falling 3% in early European trading and its American depositary receipts were pointing 1.8% lower ahead of the open. The Danish stock market was closed on Friday, so the domestic shares are playing catch up a bit.

Novo's shares have struggled recently, falling more than 40% over the past year. In contrast, Eli Lilly stock is up 47% over the same period.

The latest data drop from the weight-loss rivals looks set to widen that gap.

Write to Callum Keown at callum.keown@dowjones.com

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June 08, 2026 05:44 ET (09:44 GMT)

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