COPENHAGEN/LONDON (Reuters) – Novo Nordisk said on Tuesday its obesity drug Wegovy reduced the risk of a major cardiovascular event like a stroke by 20% in overweight or obese people with a history of heart disease, exceeding expectations from a key late-stage trial.
The large-scale trial called SELECT involved 17,500 patients and started almost five years ago testing if the weekly injection has medical benefits.
The news sent shares in Europe’s second-most valuable listed company after LVMH up more than 15%.
Ahead of the eagerly-awaited data, investors and analysts told Reuters they expected that a risk reduction of between 15% and 17% or more would be considered a positive result for the increasingly popular drug.
Showing a clear medical benefit clear, in addition to weight loss, is seen as critical for the Danish drugmaker’s hopes of moving beyond Wegovy’s image as a lifestyle drug.
(Reporting by Maggie Fick; Editing by Josephine Mason and Sharon Singleton)
