Novo’s next-gen obesity drug misses expectations in closely watched trial

A new type of obesity drug being developed by Novo Nordisk has fallen short of expectations set by the company in a closely watched Phase 3 trial, causing shares to lose nearly a fifth of their value in early trading on Friday.

In a statement, Novo said that the drug, a combination therapy called cagrisema, helped people lose up to about 23% of their body weight after 68 weeks, about 20 percentage points higher than placebo recipients and 7 higher than those who received the company’s popular weight loss drug Wegovy alone.