Novo Nordisk Shares Fall After Heart Drug Trial Fails

Shares of Novo Nordisk fell as much as 10% on Friday after the drugmaker said a late-stage heart drug trial failed to reduce major adverse cardiovascular events, or MACE, compared to a placebo.

While the experimental medicine, ziltivekimab, did show some biological effect, it didn't translate into a statistically meaningful reduction in MACE, defined as cardiovascular death, non-fatal heart attack or non-fatal stroke, for patients with certain diseases, Novo said in a statement on Friday.

The missed endpoint is the latest blow to the Danish drugmaker, which is racing to restore investor confidence in its pipeline and ability to execute, especially in the challenging U.S. market.

"While ziltivekimab did not achieve the MACE benefit we had hoped for, this does not change our strategic commitment to cardiovascular disease," chief scientific officer Martin Holst Lange said.

Copenhagen-listed shares were last seen down 7.4% while its American depositary receipts were 8.6% lower in premarket trading, on track for their worst day since February when the company released disappointing results from a head-to-head trial of its next-generation weight-loss drug CagriSema versus Eli Lilly's rival medicine. If losses hold, shares will turn negative for the year.

Jefferies and Citi analysts both said the share move seemed disproportionate given ziltivekimab's small contribution to Novo's overall portfolio.

However, "the result is strategically negative as it removes one of Novo's more credible non-obesity growth opportunities and again reinforces the company's reliance on commercial execution in obesity and sourcing external innovation for driving growth," Jefferies said.