amgenShares rose more than 12% on Friday after the drugmaker revealed positive initial data on its experimental weight-loss shot.
That fueled investor concerns about new competition in the rapidly growing weight-loss drug industry, sending shares of current obesity players, Nordisk and Eli Lilly, lower on Friday. Eli Lilly shares fell nearly 3%, while U.S.-listed shares of Novo Nordisk fell more than 1%.
Novo Nordisk shares were already under pressure on Thursday after sales of its blockbuster weight loss injection Wegovy missed analyst estimates for the first quarter due to lower prices.
During a first-quarter earnings conference call Thursday, Amgen CEO Bob Bradway said he was “very encouraged” by early results from a mid-stage study of the company's anti-obesity shot MariTide. . Investors have focused on that drug and the rest of Amgen's weight-loss drug portfolio as it competes with other drugmakers to join the booming market.
“We are confident in MariTide's differentiated profile and believe it will address important unmet medical needs,” Bradway said during the call.
Amgen did not provide specific data, but its chief scientific officer, Jay Bradner, said patient abandonment has not been a problem. He said Amgen is on track to release initial study data in late 2024 and is also planning late-stage studies in patients with obesity, obesity-related conditions and diabetes.
Bradway also highlighted the potential competitive advantages of the shot, which patients will receive via a manual auto-injector once a month or even less frequently. This could offer much more convenience than the weekly injections available on the market, Novo Nordisk's Wegovy and Eli Lilly's Zepbound.
“While there has been significant debate about the potential efficacy and safety of MariTide since the initial releases of Phase I data in 2022, we are more confident in the therapy's potential to significantly differentiate itself from other therapies in development, particularly in regarding treatment intervals,” William Blair analyst Matt Phipps said in a research note on Friday, adding that the company is upgrading Amgen's stock to “outperform.”
Notably, Amgen said it was scrapping its experimental oral obesity drug. But that development was not as important as the MariTide upgrade, Jefferies analyst Michael Yee said in a research note on Thursday.
Amgen's Bradway said the company has begun expanding manufacturing for MariTide. That's a sign that the company is preparing to produce enough of the drug, a major problem that Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly have had to deal with over the past year and a half.
Still, investors were pleased with Eli Lilly on Tuesday after the company assured them it could overcome current supply constraints on its popular drugs. Eli Lilly raised its full-year guidance in part due to optimism about increased production of Zepbound, its Mounjaro diabetes injection and similar drugs for the rest of the year.
Eli Lilly has several manufacturing sites “under construction or under construction,” including two locations in North Carolina, two in Indiana, one in Ireland and one in Germany, along with a recently acquired seventh site, executives said during a conference telephone about results.
Meanwhile, investors were less impressed with Novo Nordisk on Thursday.
Wegovy's sales during the first quarter nearly doubled, but were below analysts' expectations. This indicates that Novo Nordisk is struggling to meet demand for the treatment.
But Novo Nordisk also pointed to fierce competition from Eli Lilly's Zepbound, which has shaken up Wegovy's pricing dynamics in the US.
The “net price” for both Wegovy and Ozempic will be lower in the U.S. throughout the year due to “increasing volume and competition,” Chief Financial Officer Karsten Munk Knudsen said Thursday in an earnings conference call. first trimester.
