Yahoo Finance NVO, LLY Slip After Study Links Obesity Drug Use to Vision Loss
Shares of obesity drugmakers dipped on Wednesday after a study showed that patients who received Novo Nordisk’s NVO semaglutide, which is marketed as Wegovy (for obesity) and Ozempic (for diabetes), could develop a rare blinding eye disorder.
The study, which investigators led from a Harvard-affiliated teaching hospital, showed that patients who were prescribed semaglutide were at a higher risk of developing non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION) compared with those taking other diabetes or weight loss drugs. This condition restricts blood flow to the optic nerve and can cause permanent blindness.
Based on the rate of NAION diagnoses, the investigators believe that while diabetes patients who were prescribed semaglutide were four times more likely to be diagnosed with NAION, people with obesity were seven times more likely to develop this rare blinding condition.
The study findings did not show that the use of semaglutide caused NAION. The researchers also pointed out several limitations to the study, including the lower number of NAION cases in patients who took the drugs, which limited the study’s statistical power.
Investigators also stated that they could not determine if the patients even actually took the medication or if they started and then stopped taking the drug at some.
Per an article from Reuters, Novo Nordisk said the data from the study is ‘not sufficient’ to establish a causal association between semaglutide use and NAION. The Denmark-based drugmaker also stated that this condition is not ‘an adverse drug reaction.’
Shares of Novo lost nearly 3% post the above announcement. Shares of Eli Lilly LLY also dipped 1% in response to the study results. LLY also markets its diabetes and weight-loss drugs Mounjaro and Zepbound, respectively, both of which contain the same active ingredient tirzepatide, a dual GIP and GLP-1 receptor agonist.
This is the second time this week that Lilly and Novo have been in the news. On Tuesday, President Joe Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders called out Novo and Eli Lilly for the ‘unconscionably high’ prices of their weight-loss drugs. In response, shares of both Novo and Lilly dropped that day.
This is not the first time that obesity drugs have been called out for potential side effects. Last year, several reports suggested that semaglutide and tirzepatide were responsible for suicidal thoughts in patients. This attracted the FDA’s attention — the agency then conducted its research and issued a statement in January concluding that it did not find any evidence of such a link.
The obesity market has garnered much interest lately. Lilly and Novo have been seeing exponential sales growth of their GLP-1 drugs, which is boosting revenues and profits. The companies even achieved a market cap north of $500 billion. However, these firms have been unable to cope with existing demand and are facing delays in fulfilling orders amid continued supply constraints and product shortages.
Per research conducted by Goldman Sachs, the obesity market in the United States is expected to reach $130 billion by the end of this decade. This is also evident from the fact that Lilly and Novo are not only investing heavily to optimize their production capacities but have also started evaluating multiple other novel obesity candidates in their pipeline.
Based on the success seen by Lilly and Novo in the obesity space, several other companies like Viking Therapeutics VKTX, Amgen AMGN and Rocheare also developing their obesity drugs in clinical studies.
Viking’s VK2735 is being evaluated as a subcutaneous (SC) injection and as an oral pill in a mid-stage study and an early-stage study, respectively. The drug has shown blockbuster potential, having demonstrated superior weight reduction capabilities in both clinical studies. Viking expects to advance both formulations of the drug into further development before 2024-end.
Alongside its first-quarter earnings report, Amgen announced that it has completed an interim analysis of data from a mid-stage study, MariTide. Though AMGN did not discuss any numbers, it was ‘very encouraged’ with the interim data. Based on these results, Amgen also initiated activities to expand manufacturing capacity for the drug.
Roche recently forayed into the obesity market after it acquired privately owned Carmot Therapeutics for $2.7 billion in January.
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