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

Shares of U.S. drugmaker Eli Lilly LLY.N rise 5% to $1,060.58

Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk NOVOb.CO says its next-generation obesity drug, CagriSema, underperformed Lilly's Zepbound in a head-to-head trial

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 dropped 15.6% to an over four-year low of $40.01

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%