Novo Nordisks Martin Holst long preview of obesity pill
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We approach the first needle-free weight loss drug.
That is thanks Novo Nordiskwho expects a US approval for his daily pill for chronic weight management by the end of this year. The company expects to start it in early 2026.
The drug is the 25-milligram-oral version of Semaglutid, the active ingredient in the popular weight loss injection of the Danish drug maker Wegovy and Diabetes counterpart Ozempic.
Several drug makers, including the main competitor of Novo Nordisks Eli LillyHave drove races for obese pills that can help to relieve the parameters and problems that access the injections on the market. Pills are probably easier to produce than injections, and some health experts hope that they are cheaper.
It can be too early to say which pill will win the largest share of the market. However, one thing is clear: Nordo Nordisks drug will have a lead.
Martin Holst Lange, Executive Vice President for Research and Development and Chief Scientific Officer from Nordo Nordisks, sat down with CNBC to drive the company’s pill.
About the advantages of the pill:
The “unsurpassed” weight loss, safety and compatibility profile of the pill has long advertised.
The pill helped the patient to lose up to 16.6% of their weight on average at 64 weeks, as can be seen from a study in the late stage at a medical conference in 2024. This weight loss was 13.6%when the company analyzed all patients, regardless of whether they had stopped the medication.
The weight loss seems to be able to agree with the injectable version of Semaglutid (Weitvy) and slightly higher than those that are caused by an experimental pill by Eli Lilly in a separate phase.
“I think the data speak a little for themselves,” said Lange.
Lange later said that some competitors of the company expect their pills less effective than their injectable medication, but for Novo Nordisk this is “clearly not the case”.
He also referred to the “much lower” rates of patients who parked the treatment due to side effects compared to competing medication. But long said he should compare comparisons “with a grain of salt” because no head-to-head tests compete directly against the pill from Novo Nordisk against other medication.
About 6.9% of the patients dropped oral semaglutid due to side effects that were mainly gastrointestinal compared to around 5.9% of those who took a placebo.
In the meantime, 10.3% of the patients who had the highest dose of Eli Lillys pill has stopped treatment due to side effects compared to around 2.6% of people in a placebo group.
Lange also said that Novo Nordisk’s pill could have a cardiovascular health advantage. This is because Semaglutid – especially wide houses – is the only injection on the market with an established and approved cardiovascular benefit.
Novo Nordisk said last week that Wegovy was at a risk of heart attack, stroke or death by 57% compared to Eli Lilly’s weight loss injection in a real comparison of competing medication in patients with obesity and cardiovascular diseases, but not rained 57%, but not with diabetes.
In a separate phase three study called “Soul”, Novo Nordisks orales Semaglutid lowered the risk of cardiovascular death, heart attack and stroke by 14% compared to a placebo after four years in patients with diabetes and established heart disease with or without chronic kidney disease.
On the nutritional needs of the pill:
Novo Nordisks Pill is a peptide medication, while competitors like Eli Lilly’s treatment are small medicines with small molecules.
This means that patients in the morning have to take simple water on an empty stomach on an empty stomach with no more than four ounces. You will be instructed to wait 30 minutes before eating, drinking or taking other oral medication. Some analysts previously announced CNBC that these nutritional requirements could be a hurdle for certain patients.
But for a long time it called “a theoretical problem” and pointed out evidence that it is “not a real restriction”. For example, he said that the patients were treated with the pill for up to five years in the placebo -controlled soul attempt and “even in this environment was not seen as a restriction”.
“Patients apparently accept this medication without restricting their lives,” said Lange. “I think that’s a question from, you get up in the morning, you take the tablet, then you usually shower for breakfast and then, very quickly, is half an hour away.”
How pills fit into the obesity market:
Long said injections don’t seem to be “a big obstacle” that do not seem to be when it comes to being a great obstacle For people who take obese treatments, but recognized that there are some patients who don’t like needles or have other reasons not to want injectable medication.
Novo Nordisk wants to be able to reach these people.
“If there is a large group of people who prefer an oral agreement on an injectable thing, we want to deliver it,” he said. “We prefer to deliver this again with the same effectiveness and the same security profile.”
He said [gastrointestinal side effects]. “
Lange said that the ability to transition to various treatments in a phase thirty study must be demonstrated, “based on what we have seen so far, this optionality is in our portfolio.”
He emphasized other oral and injectable medication in the Novo Nordisk pipeline, including Amycletin. This treatment aims at the same intestinal hormone, the Wortovy Mimics, known as GLP-1, and a pancreas hormone called Amylin, which influences hunger. The attempts in the late stage against Amycletin will start next year, said Lange.
When fulfilling the demand with supply:
In recent years, the injections of Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly have been in the lack of a lack of care due to the leaking demand. These treatments are no longer a lack of supply, and Wall Street and the health and medical community hope that pills will not hit the same problem.
Lange said that it is “obviously decisive for us” to produce sufficiently from the medication to ensure that patients can continue their treatment. He said the company was confident that the treatment of treatment was scaling.
For a long time, the company’s investments in increasing production capacity in recent years pointed out. This includes a new production plant in North Carolina and a contract for the purchase of three catalents production locations of the parent company of Novo Nordisk, Novo Holdings,.
Lange said that these investments will help in the supply of injections, but “it is certainly also the case to the oral active ingredients that are actually manufactured in the USA”.
Feel free to send Annikakim.constantino@nbcuni.com tips, suggestions, ideas and data to Annika.
Openai doubles About healthcare innovation.
In a contribution about LinkedIn Tuesday, Openas Chief Product Officer Kevin Weil announced that he was creating a new initiative within the company called “Openaai for Science”. The company for artificial intelligence will hire a small team of academics to “create a AI-powered platform that accelerates the scientific discovery,” said Weil.
“In combination with a small team of researchers, we would like to prove that AI models are willing to accelerate basic science – and accelerate research around the world,” wrote Weil.
Openai for Science will not work exclusively on health care, but because there were several examples of how KI has been used in recent months to accelerate health -related and biological research. He mentioned Google Deepminds Alphafold, which, among other things, predicts the structure of the structure, in which proteins are folded into the work of Openais with retro biosciences.
“Scientific discovery improves everything from the quality of our daily life to national security to global GDP,” said Weil in the post. “Innovation is the reason why the United States leads the world. Only a few domains promise so much promise to improve life as science.”
The new scientific initiative takes place after Openai GPT-5 has advertised as a “best model” for health-related questions. GPT-5, which was introduced last month, is the latest and most advanced AI model from Openai.
Sam Altman, CEO of Openaai, said a contribution to X Health-related questions is one of the largest usage categories for the chatt-chatbot.
GPT-5 is designed in such a way that you proactively indicate health concerns, ask relevant questions and generate precise and reliable answers, said Openai in a blog post. Altman said in his X-Post that he hopes that GPT-5 health functions “offer people real service”.
“Perhaps health care is the area where there is the strongest improvement in a category,” Altman said last month in an interview with CNBCS “Squawk Box”.
Feel free to send tips, suggestions, story ideas and data to Ashley at Ashley.capoot@nbcuni.com.
