Novo Nordisk (NVO) Stock Drops 15% After CagriSema Fails to Beat Eli Lilly’s Zepbound

TLDR

• Novo Nordisk stock fell 15% after CagriSema failed to prove non-inferiority to Eli Lilly’s tirzepatide in an 84-week trial.
• CagriSema delivered 23% weight loss vs. 25.5% for tirzepatide — missing its primary endpoint.
• The stock hit its lowest level since June 2021, down nearly 50% over the past year.
• Novo’s CEO remains confident in CagriSema, citing its potential as the first GLP-1/amylin combo drug on the market.
• Eli Lilly stock rose 3.1% in premarket trading on the news.

Novo Nordisk took another hit on Monday. The stock fell as much as 15% after the company revealed its next-generation weight loss drug, CagriSema, failed to prove it was just as good as Eli Lilly’s tirzepatide in a head-to-head trial.

Novo Nordisk A/S, NVO

The result sent NVO to its lowest price since June 2021.

In the late-stage trial, patients on CagriSema lost 23% of their body weight over 84 weeks. Those on tirzepatide — the active ingredient in Lilly’s Mounjaro and Zepbound — lost 25.5%.

That gap meant CagriSema missed its primary endpoint: showing non-inferiority to tirzepatide.

The trial was open-label, meaning participants knew which drug they were taking. Novo’s Chief Scientific Officer Martin Holst Lange said this design can introduce bias toward a well-known product when tested against an experimental one.

Lange said he was “surprised” by tirzepatide’s 25.5% result, pointing out that Lilly’s own studies have shown the drug producing around 20.2% weight loss over 72 weeks.

CEO Stays Optimistic

Novo filed CagriSema with the FDA late last year, and a decision is expected by late 2026. Doustdar said he expects it to reach the market early next year with the best weight-loss label available.

The company is also exploring additional trials, including higher-dose combinations, to maximize the drug’s potential.

CagriSema combines semaglutide — the ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy — with cagrilintide, an experimental hormone that affects appetite. Novo has positioned it as the first GLP-1/amylin combination treatment for obesity.

A Rough Run for Novo

This is not an isolated setback. When Novo first released CagriSema late-stage data in December 2024, the stock dropped 21% and wiped out nearly $100 billion in market value.

Over the past year, NVO has lost close to 50% of its value.

Earlier this month, Novo forecast a sales and profit decline of between 5% and 13% for 2026. The company is dealing with rising competition, lower U.S. prices, and upcoming patent expirations on Wegovy and Ozempic in some markets.

Meanwhile, Eli Lilly’s stock rose 3.1% in premarket trading Monday.

Novo’s Copenhagen-listed stock was last seen down 14% at 259 Danish kroner.

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