By Dominic Chopping

Novo Nordisk shares rose sharply Friday after the Danish pharmaceutical giant said an experimental weight-loss shot helped patients lose 22% of their bodyweight in a clinical trial.

Shares were 10% higher in European afternoon trade following the news, making it once again Europe's most valuable company, according to FactSet data. It had lost the crown to French luxury group LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton last week on concerns it will have to cut the price of its drugs in the U.S.

The company behind blockbuster obesity treatment Wegovy and diabetes drug Ozempic is busy developing the next generation of drugs that it hopes will turbocharge weight-loss and offer broader health benefits while also reducing side-effects.

The company said Friday that patients in the trial were given ascending doses of amycretin--a drug that mimics the same gut hormone as Wegovy to suppress appetite, delay stomach emptying and control blood sugar, but combines it with a hormone in the pancreas called amylin that also regulates appetite.

People treated with the drug achieved an estimated bodyweight loss of 9.7% on the smallest dose after 20 weeks, rising to 22% on the highest tested dose after 36 weeks.

The most common side-effects were gastrointestinal and the vast majority were mild to moderate in severity, it said.

Martin Lange, executive vice president for development at Novo Nordisk, said he was very encouraged by the results. "The results seen in the trial support the weight lowering potential of ... amycretin, that we have previously seen with the oral formulation."

The trial tested amycretin in its injectable form, but Novo Nordisk is also separately developing the drug in pill form. Investors cheered an early trial of the pill early last year that showed weight loss of around 13% after 12 weeks, better than the 6% weight loss patients experienced after 12 weeks in a Wegovy trial.

Based on Friday's results, Novo Nordisk said it is now planning further clinical development of amycretin in overweight or obese adults.

Write to Dominic Chopping at dominic.chopping@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 24, 2025 06:52 ET (11:52 GMT)

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