Amgen‘s inventory rose greater than 12% on Friday after the drugmaker teased optimistic preliminary information on its experimental weight reduction injection.
That fueled investor issues about new competitors within the quickly rising weight reduction drug business, sending shares of the present weight problems gamers, Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, decrease on Friday. Eli Lilly shares dropped practically 3%, whereas Novo Nordisk’s U.S.-traded shares fell greater than 1%.
Novo Nordisk’s inventory was already below strain on Thursday after gross sales of its blockbuster weight reduction injection Wegovy missed analysts’ estimates for the primary quarter because of decrease pricing.
Throughout a first-quarter earnings name Thursday, Amgen’s CEO Bob Bradway stated he was “very inspired” by early outcomes from a mid-stage examine on the corporate’s weight problems injection, MariTide. Buyers have been laser-focused on that drug and the remainder of Amgen’s weight reduction drug pipeline because it races a number of different drugmakers to hitch the booming market.
“We’re assured in MariTide’s differentiated profile and imagine it’s going to tackle necessary unmet medical wants,” Bradway stated through the name.
Amgen didn’t present particular information, however its Chief Scientific Officer Jay Bradner stated that affected person dropout has not been a difficulty. He stated Amgen is on monitor to launch preliminary information from the examine in late 2024 and can also be planning late-stage research in sufferers with weight problems, obesity-related circumstances and diabetes.
Bradway additionally highlighted the potential aggressive benefits of the injection, which sufferers will take utilizing a hand-held autoinjector as soon as a month and even much less continuously. That might provide much more comfort than the weekly injections in the marketplace, Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Eli Lilly’s Zepbound.
“Whereas there was vital debate on the potential efficacy and security of MariTide for the reason that preliminary disclosures of the Section I information in 2022, now we have grown extra assured within the potential for the remedy to meaningfully differentiate from different therapies in growth, notably in regard to therapy intervals,” William Blair analyst Matt Phipps stated in a analysis word on Friday, including that the agency is upgrading its ranking on Amgen shares to “outperform.”
Notably, Amgen stated it was scrapping its experimental oral weight problems drug. However that growth was not as necessary because the MariTide replace, Jefferies analyst Michael Yee stated in a analysis word Thursday.
Amgen’s Bradway stated the corporate has began increasing manufacturing for MariTide. That is a sign that the corporate is getting ready to provide sufficient provide of the drug — a significant situation that Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly have grappled with over the previous 12 months and a half.
Nonetheless, traders have been happy with Eli Lilly on Tuesday after the corporate assured them that it might overcome ongoing provide constraints for its in style medication. Eli Lilly hiked its full-year steering partially because of optimism round elevated manufacturing of Zepbound, its diabetes injection Mounjaro and related medication for the remainder of the 12 months.
Eli Lilly has a number of manufacturing websites both “ramping up or below building,” together with two areas in North Carolina, two in Indiana, one in Eire, and one in Germany, together with a seventh not too long ago acquired web site, executives stated throughout an earnings name.
In the meantime, traders have been much less impressed with Novo Nordisk on Thursday.
Gross sales of Wegovy through the first quarter practically doubled however got here in below analysts’ expectations. That alerts that Novo Nordisk is struggling to satisfy demand for the therapy.
However Novo Nordisk additionally pointed to fierce competitors from Eli Lilly’s Zepbound, which has shaken up pricing dynamics for Wegovy within the U.S.
“Web pricing” for each Wegovy and Ozempic will likely be decrease within the U.S. all year long because of the “growing quantity and competitors,” Chief Monetary Officer Karsten Munk Knudsen stated on a first-quarter earnings name on Thursday.