Eli Lilly up as Novo Nordisk's obesity drug underperforms in Copenhagen trial

Shares of U.S. drugmaker Eli Lilly LLY.N rise 2.8% to $1,037 in premarket trading

Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk NOVOb.CO says its experimental obesity drug, CagriSema, did not meet the primary endpoint in a trial designed to show it was non-inferior to competitor Eli Lilly's Tirzepatide in reducing body weight

Novo says it plans to begin a higher-dose trial of CagriSema in H2 2026 with U.S. FDA decision expected by late 2026

Novo says CagriSema achieved a 23% reduction in body weight over 84 weeks, compared to 25.5% for Eli Lilly's tirzepatide in the trial

U.S.-listed shares of Novo Nordisk fall 14.8% to $40.41 premarket

*J.P.Morgan says "While CargiSema should bring a more competitive offering to market for Novo, we believe it will be difficult for Novo to dislodge market share from LLY (particularly post today's results and with Zepbound well entrenched in the market). As a result, we expect LLY will have a longer runway for share gains for Zepbound beyond 2026"

In 2025, Lilly down 6.1% while Novo down 7.7%