Novo Nordisk launches major obesity research program

The Company Foundation is funding a new pan-European initiative to accelerate drug discovery and the development of next generation therapeutics for cardiometabolic diseases. 

The initiative addresses one of today's most pressing global challenges: Translating promising research into improved care for people living with CMDs. Despite Europe's strong position in CMD research, many promising discoveries fail to progress beyond the academic laboratory.

To address this challenge, a new initiative, CardioMetabolic Bridge, will support selected academic research projects with funding, scientific and commercial mentoring from entrepreneurs and industry experts and access to state-of-the-art facilities. The initiative is backed by up to DKK 450 million (EUR 60.2 million) from the Novo Nordisk Foundation over six years. This month, the initiative's first lab space will be opening in London followed by sister sites in Italy and Germany.

• Novo Nordisk Foundation (majority owner) unveiled DKK 450M (~$69M) CardioMetabolic Bridge initiative
• Pan-European incubator network to speed drug discovery for obesity, diabetes, cardiometabolic diseases
• First lab opening in London June 2026, followed by hubs in Italy and Germany over 6 years
• Boosts sentiment amid Wegovy pill hitting 3M prescriptions and strong oral GLP-1 uptake

(monthly, live)

Eli Lilly (LLY) : retatrutide

Eli Lilly's next-generation obesity drug, retatrutide (a triple agonist targeting GIP, GLP-1, and glucagon receptors), has shown record-breaking weight loss results in Phase 3 trials.

Key Results from Recent Trials

• TRIUMPH-4 (obesity + knee osteoarthritis, Dec 2025): In a 68-week study, the highest dose (12 mg) led to an average 28.7% body weight loss (about 71.2 lbs / 32 kg from a baseline of ~248 lbs) among those who stayed on treatment. Including dropouts, it was around 23.7%. It also significantly reduced knee pain (up to 75.8% improvement on WOMAC scores).
• TRIUMPH-1 (general obesity/overweight with comorbidities, May 2026): Highest dose achieved ~28.3% weight loss over 80 weeks. Over 45% of participants lost 30%+ of body weight, and many reached a BMI under 30. This puts it in bariatric surgery territory for many patients.
• Diabetes trial (TRANSCEND-T2D-1, Mar 2026): Strong A1C reductions (1.7–2.0%) plus up to ~16.8% weight loss (36.6 lbs) at 40 weeks, with weight loss still ongoing.

These results outperform current blockbusters like Zepbound (tirzepatide, dual GIP/GLP-1, typically ~15–22% weight loss) and Wegovy (semaglutide, ~15–20%). Retatrutide's addition of glucagon receptor agonism appears to boost fat burning and energy expenditure.Side Effects and TolerabilityGastrointestinal issues (nausea, etc.) are common, similar to other incretins, with rates up to ~42%. Discontinuation rates were notably higher than in earlier trials—some participants stopped due to perceived excessive weight loss or skin-related side effects. This is a key watchpoint for real-world use.Context and OutlookRetatrutide is part of Lilly's deep obesity pipeline (alongside the oral GLP-1 orforglipron and others like eloralintide). Regulatory filings are expected later in 2026, with potential approval/launch in 2027.These "eye-popping" results highlight rapid progress in multi-agonist drugs, but questions remain around long-term safety, muscle preservation, maintenance after stopping, and broad accessibility/cost. 

Weight loss drug news

• June 8, 26: Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY)'s Foundayo (orforglipron), the only oral GLP-1 taken without food or water restrictions, was associated with significant weight loss in women at every stage of menopause
• June 8, 26: Novo Nordisk reports positive Phase 3 CagriSema data across REIMAGINE diabetes studies, showing investigational once-weekly CagriSema achieved significant reductions in HbA1c and body weight in adults with type 2 diabetes across multiple treatment settings.
• June 8, 26: Novo Nordisk reports Wegovy pill prescriptions surpass 3 mln in U.S. since its January launch, with more than 80% of prescriptions coming from patients new to GLP-1 therapy.

• Co said the oral obesity drug reached 1 mln prescriptions in its first 12 weeks and added another 2 mln prescriptions over the following 10 weeks, making it one of the strongest U.S. pharmaceutical launches by volume.
• May 28, 26: France has become the first EU nation to reimburse weight loss medications, including blockbuster GLP-1s from Novo Nordisk (NVO) and Eli Lilly (LLY), with coverage limited to severe obesity, Health Minister Stephanie Rist said. 
• Under the coverage decision taking effect in mid-June, France's social security system will cover weight-loss meds, including Novo’s (NVO) Wegovy and Lilly’s (LLY) Mounjaro, when used in severely obese patients.
• May 12, 26: Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY) announced late-phase trial results showing that Foundayo (orforglipron) and lower-dose Zepbound effectively maintain weight loss after patients switch from higher-dose injectables. The company’s ATTAIN-MAINTAIN study indicated that patients transitioning from Wegovy or Zepbound to oral Foundayo maintained most of their initial weight loss after one year.  Similarly, the SURMOUNT-MAINTAIN trial showed that reducing Zepbound to 5 mg or continuing at the maximum tolerated dose will result in durable long-term weight maintenance. These findings were published in The Lancet and Nature Medicine and point to new flexible options for chronic obesity management while minimizing weight regain during the transition from one treatment to another.
• Novo Nordisk -- Eli Lilly's biggest rival -- has already requested approval for its next-gen therapy, CagriSema, which could launch by the end of the year, pending approval. Novo Nordisk is also running phase 3 studies for a candidate called Amycretin.
• Viking Therapeutics'(VKTX) leading weight-loss candidate, VK2735, is a GLP-1 medicine being developed in both oral and subcutaneous formulations. Last year, the company completed phase 2 studies for the oral version. Oral VK2735 led to a mean weight loss of up to 12.2% at the highest dose in 13 weeks. The company also stated that no weight-loss plateau was observed. This is a phenomenal performance over such a short period.
• May 1, 26: GoodRx (GDRX) partners with Novo Nordisk to offer self-pay access to new oral Ozempic pill starting at $149 per month.
• May 1, 26:  FDA proposes removing semaglutide, liraglutide from 503B bulk compounding list, potentially curbing copycat GLP-1 versions. Proposal could limit lower-cost compounded GLP-1 copies and support demand for Novo Nordisk's branded semaglutide and liraglutide.
• May 1, 26:  Novo Nordisk A/S announces that starting Monday, May 4, Ozempic tablets 1.5 mg, 4 mg, and 9 mg will be available for adults with type 2 diabetes in the US.  Ozempic pill is the only oral GLP-1 medicine approved for both primary and secondary cardiovascular risk reduction of heart attack, stroke, and death in adults with type 2 diabetes at high risk for these events, including those with known heart disease.
• March 10, 26: Novo Nordisk has dropped its highly contentious lawsuit against telehealth platform Hims & Hers, ending eight months of legal tension and opening the door to cooperation in selling obesity drugs. Under a new agreement, Hims will offer Novo’s injectable and oral semaglutide — sold as Ozempic and Wegovy — at prices comparable to other telehealth providers. In return, Hims will stop advertising compounded GLP-1 drugs on its platform.     
• Feb 23, 26: Eli Lilly launched a new form of its blockbuster obesity drug, Zepbound, that offers a month’s worth of doses in a single pen.   Cash-paying patients can get the multi-dose device, called KwikPen, on the company’s direct-to-consumer website, LillyDirect. Prices start at $299 per month for the lowest dose level.   The KwikPen is already used for other drugs, such as Lilly’s popular diabetes medication, Mounjaro. 
• Dec 22, 2025:  The FDA has approved the first-ever GLP-1 pill from Novo Nordisk. Novo Nordisk said the starting dose of 1.5 milligrams will be available in early January in pharmacies and via select telehealth providers with savings offers for $149 per month.  
• That’s the same price that cash-paying patients can access the starting dose of the pill on President Donald Trump’s direct-to-consumer website, TrumpRx, under a deal Novo Nordisk struck with his administration last month. Trump’s site also launches in January.  The approval gives Novo Nordisk a head start over chief rival Eli Lilly, which is racing to launch its own obesity pill.
• Dec 18, 2025:  Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk — the dominant players in obesity drug development — each submitted a new weight-loss drug to the FDA for approval today.

Eli Lilly’s (LLY) drug is called orforglipron. It is a pill that’s taken daily and has shown 12.4% average weight loss. The drugmaker also shared new data that demonstrate orforglipron helped patients maintain their weight loss for a year compared to placebo, and after switching from Zepbound, its weight-loss injection, or Wegovy, Novo’s competing weight-loss injection.

Novo Nordisk’s (NVO) next-gen medication is called CagriSema. It’s a once-weekly shot that combines a long-acting amylin analogue and Wegovy. Clinical trials found that patients taking CagriSema lose an average of 20.4% of their weight after 68 weeks, compared to 3.0% on placebo.

CagriSema would be the first combo GLP-1 if it’s approved, while orforglipron would be the first GLP-1 pill approved for weight loss. Oral GLP-1s like Lilly’s Trulicity and Novo’s Rybelsus have been on the market for about 10 years, though they are only approved to treat people with Type 2 diabetes.

Though Novo was the first to bring a GLP-1 for obesity to market, Lilly is viewed as the market leader, both in sales performance and strategic dealmaking for its products. Its stock is up about 34% for the year, while Novo’s shares have tumbled 45%.

• Dec 11, 2025: Eli Lilly (LLY): experimental "triple G" delivered the best weight loss thus far in a clinical study.  Retatrutide works by mimicking a trio of hormones — GLP-1, GIPR and glucagon — to curb hunger signals and improve blood sugar levels. In a Phase 3 study, patients with obesity and osteoarthritis of the knee, but not type 2 diabetes, lost up to 28.7% of their body weight after 68 weeks.
• Retatrutide is the most effective weight-loss drug so far, producing 28.3% weight loss in people who are obese or overweight over about a year and a half, according to new data released Saturday at the American Diabetes Association’s annual meeting in New Orleans. 

The results top the 22.5% reduction seen with Lilly's tirzepatide in a 72-week study. Tirzepatide, which sells under the brands Mounjaro and Zepbound for diabetes and weight loss, mimics GLP-1 and GIPR.

There are likely three future categories for weight-loss drugs: low weight loss, mid weight loss and "super high weight loss." Retatrutide likely fits into the last group. Tirzepatide "rules supreme" in the mid weight-loss category, with oral drugs likely to fill the low weight-loss space.

In additional secondary endpoints, retatrutide reduced known markers of cardiovascular risk, including non-HDL cholesterol, triglycerides, and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP), and at the highest dose lowered systolic blood pressure by 14.0 mmHg, using the efficacy estimand.4 In an additional post-hoc analysis, 14.1% of patients on retatrutide 9 mg and 12.0% patients on retatrutide 12 mg were completely free of knee pain at 68 weeks compared to 4.2% on placebo, based on the observed efficacy estimand data.

• July 29, 25: Novo Nordisk cuts full-year guidance driven by weaker second-half U.S. sales growth forecasts for its Wegovy weight loss drug and Ozempic diabetes treatment. The company also named Maziar Mike Doustdar as its new CEO after the surprise ousting of Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen in May.

AstraZeneca's Development of a Weight Loss Drugs

AstraZeneca is actively developing an experimental oral (pill) weight loss drug called AZD5004 (previously known as ECC5004). 

This is a small-molecule GLP-1 receptor agonist aimed at treating obesity, type 2 diabetes, and related cardiometabolic conditions. It's designed to be taken once daily, potentially with fewer gastrointestinal side effects than injectable GLP-1 drugs like Novo Nordisk's Wegovy or Eli Lilly's Zepbound, and it could be combined with other therapies for patients with comorbidities (affecting over 60% of obese individuals).

Key Development Details

• Origin: Licensed from China's Eccogene in November 2023 for $185 million upfront, plus up to $1.8 billion in milestones (total potential value ~$2 billion). AstraZeneca has global rights outside China.
• Current Stage:
  • Phase I trials (completed early 2024) showed promising results: safe and tolerable with side effects typical of GLP-1 class (e.g., mild nausea); 5.8% average weight loss in type 2 diabetes patients over 4 weeks; reduced fasting plasma glucose.
  • Now in two Phase IIb trials (as of November 2024):
    • Solstice Study: 384 participants with type 2 diabetes; results expected early 2026.
    • Unnamed Obesity Study: 304 participants with obesity/overweight; focuses on ≥5% weight loss at 26 weeks; expected completion by end of 2025.
• Differentiation: Easier to manufacture than peptides; targets patients intolerant to injectables; potential for combo therapies.
• Market Outlook: AstraZeneca projects peak sales of $800 million+ by 2032 if approved, part of a broader $5 billion metabolic business goal. However, analysts (e.g., BMO Capital) remain conservative until Phase II data de-risks efficacy.

AstraZeneca is also advancing injectable obesity candidates (e.g., AZD6234, an amylin agonist in Phase IIb for weekly subcutaneous use), but AZD5004 is their lead oral entrant in a crowded race against Novo, Lilly, Pfizer, and others. They're "a few years behind" leaders but bullish on oral formats for broader access, especially in emerging markets. No approval timeline yet—likely 2028+ if trials succeed.

Novo Nordisk

Novo Nordisk is the result of a 1989 merger of Denmark’s two historic insulin pioneers—Novo and Nordisk—both of which began producing insulin within two years of its discovery in Canada.

• https://www.novonordisk.com/

Key dates

• 1922–1923 → Novo founded, starts insulin production
• 1923–1924 → Nordisk founded, starts insulin production
• 1989 → Merger creates Novo Nordisk A/S
• 1990s–2000s → Becomes world leader in diabetes care (especially with insulin analogs and later GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic/Wegovy)

Origins of the two founding companies

1. Novo Industri A/S (founded as Novo Terapeutisk Laboratorium)
   • Founded: 1922 (insulin production started in 1923)
   • Founders: Brothers Hans Christian Hagedorn (physician), August Krogh (Nobel Prize-winning physiologist), and August Kongsted (financier)
   • Key milestone: In 1923, August Krogh’s wife, Birgit (a physician with diabetes), encouraged him to bring insulin knowledge from Canada (where Banting & Best discovered insulin in 1921) back to Denmark. Novo began producing insulin the same year using a method developed by Hagedorn (longer-acting neutral protamine Hagedorn insulin, or NPH, later became famous).
   • The name “Novo” comes from Latin “novus” = new.
2. Nordisk Gentofte A/S (originally Nordisk Insulinlaboratorium)
   • Founded: 1923
   • Founders: August Kongsted (same financier as Novo), Hans Christian Hagedorn (initially involved), and the brothers Harald and Thorvald Pedersen
   • Started insulin production almost simultaneously with Novo in 1923–1924.
   • The Pedersen brothers later took full control after a split from Hagedorn and Kongsted.

For decades, Novo and Nordisk were fierce Danish rivals—both producing insulin, both based in the Copenhagen area, and both controlled by charitable foundations (a structure that still exists today).

Competitors & Key Overlapping Products

1. Eli Lilly and Company - USA

• Mounjaro (tirzepatide for diabetes), Zepbound (tirzepatide for obesity), orforglipron (experimental oral GLP-1)
• Novo’s fiercest rival: expected to overtake Novo in GLP-1 market share in 2025 due to superior weight-loss efficacy in head-to-head trials and faster growth (e.g., Zepbound prescriptions now exceed Wegovy's in the US). Dual-action therapies give Lilly an edge over Novo's semaglutide.

2. AstraZeneca - UK/Sweden

• Bydureon (exenatide for diabetes), Farxiga (dapagliflozin for diabetes/heart failure)
• Competes in diabetes management with SGLT2 inhibitors; less direct in obesity but gaining in cardiometabolic combos. Market share shifts highlight AstraZeneca's push into weight management innovations.

3. Boehringer Ingelheim - Germany

• Survodutide (experimental glucagon/GLP-1 for obesity), Jardiance (empagliflozin for diabetes)
• Emerging challenger outside the Novo-Lilly duopoly; survodutide is the first new AOM (anti-obesity medication) entrant in 2025, targeting broader metabolic indications like liver disease.

4. Pfizer - USA

• Experimental oral/injectable obesity candidates (e.g., via acquisitions like Metsera bid)
• Indirect via pipeline; aggressively pursuing obesity through M&A (e.g., bidding war with Novo for Metsera in Oct 2025). Competes in broader pharma but ramping up in GLP-1 alternatives.

5. Sanofi - France

• Lantus (insulin glargine), Toujeo (long-acting insulin)
• Strong in insulin (Novo's core legacy area); less dominant in GLP-1/obesity but expanding into next-gen insulins and combos.

Additional Context

• Duopoly Dynamics: Novo and Eli Lilly control ~90% of the GLP-1 market, but Lilly's momentum (e.g., +40% projected Wegovy-competing sales growth) has pressured Novo's stock, down ~50% YTD amid supply issues and trial disappointments for next-gen drugs like CagriSema.
• Emerging Threats: Biotechs like Metsera (target of Novo/Pfizer bids) and others developing once-monthly or oral GLP-1s could disrupt by 2026. Generic semaglutide entries post-patent (early 2030s) will intensify pressure.
• Market Shifts: In 2025, obesity care sales grew 37% for Novo, but overall guidance was cut to 8-11% due to pricing scrutiny, compounded versions, and rivals' innovations.

This landscape evolves rapidly with ongoing trials and regulatory approvals—e.g., Lilly's obesity pill orforglipron outperformed Novo's oral semaglutide in a 2025 diabetes trial.