Investing.com - Copenhagen-listed shares in Novo Nordisk (CSE:NOVOb) surged on Friday after the Danish drugmaker said subcutaneous trials of its highly-anticipated experimental medicine amycretin showed patients using the treatment shed as much as an estimated 22% of their body weight.
In a statement on Friday, Novo said the subcutaneous phase 1b/2a study found that people treated with amycretin achieved an estimated body weight loss of 9.7% after taking a dosage of 1.25 mg for 20 weeks. For those that took a higher dosage of 5 mg for 28 weeks, they reduced their weight by roughly 16.2%, while patients on the strongest dosage of 20 mg for 36 weeks dropped 22%.
People treated with a placebo, meanwhile, experienced body weight gains of 1.9%, 2.3%, and 2.0%, respectively, Novo added.
The most common adverse events from the trial of 125 people from amycretin were gastrointestinal and "mild to moderate" in severity, the firm said.
"The results seen in the trial support the weight lowering potential of this novel unimolecular GLP-1 and amylin receptor agonist, amycretin, that we have previously seen with the oral formulation,” said Martin Lange, Executive Vice President for Development at Novo.
The company said it is now planning further clinical development of amycretin in adults who are overweight or obese.
Novo, the firm behind blockbuster weight-loss and diabetes therapies Wegovy and Ozempic, previously said in September that an early-stage trial showed amycretin was safe and tolerable for patients and had mild-to-moderate side effects.
Amycretin address the same gut hormone -- known as GLP-1 -- that Wegovy mimics, although it also address a pancreas hormone called amylin that can impact hunger.
Along with US peer Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY), Novo has been racing to roll out active ingredients in its GLP-1 obesity drugs, as they look to shore up their position in a lucrative market which analysts predict could be worth hundreds of billions of dollars by the next decade.
(Reuters contributed reporting.)