AmgenThe company’s shares rose more than 12% on Friday after the drugmaker reported positive preliminary data on its experimental weight-loss shot.
That has fueled investor concerns about up-to-date competition in the fast-growing weight-loss drug industry, sending shares of existing obesity players, Fresh Nordisk AND Eli Lilly, below on Friday. Eli Lilly shares fell almost 3%, while U.S.-listed Novo Nordisk shares fell more than 1%.
Novo Nordisk shares were already under pressure on Thursday following sales of its blockbuster weight-loss shot. Wegovy missed analysts’ first-quarter estimates due to lower prices.
On Thursday’s first-quarter earnings call, Amgen CEO Bob Bradway said he was “very encouraged” by preliminary results from a mid-stage study of the company’s obesity drug, MariTide. Investors have focused on the drug and the rest of Amgen’s weight-loss drug portfolio as Amgen races to beat several other drugmakers to join the booming market.
“We are confident in MariTide’s differentiated profile and believe it will address critical unmet medical needs,” Bradway said in a telephone interview.
Amgen did not provide specific data, but its chief scientific officer, Jay Bradner, said patient withdrawal from the trial was not a problem. He said Amgen is on track to publish preliminary data from the study in tardy 2024 and also plans late-stage studies in patients with obesity, obesity-related conditions and diabetes.
Bradway also highlighted the potential competitive advantage of injections that patients will receive via a manual auto-injector once a month or even less frequently. This may provide much more convenience than the weekly injections available on the market, Wegovy by Novo Nordisk and Zepbound by Eli Lilly.
“While there has been significant debate about the potential efficacy and safety of MariTide since the first release of Phase I data in 2022, we have gained greater confidence in the potential of this therapy to significantly differentiate it from other therapies in development, particularly with respect to interruptions in treatment,” William Blair analyst Matt Phipps said in a research note Friday, adding that the company is raising its rating on Amgen stock to “outperform.”
Of note, Amgen has stated that it is withdrawing its experimental oral obesity drug. However, this development was not as critical as the MariTide update, Jefferies analyst Michael Yee said in a research note Thursday.
Amgen’s Bradway said the company has begun expanding production for MariTide. This is a signal that the company is preparing to produce enough supply of the drug – a major problem that Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly have been grappling with for the past year and a half.
Still, investors were pleased with Eli Lilly’s drug on Tuesday as the company assured them it could overcome ongoing supply constraints for its popular drugs. Eli Lilly raised its full-year forecast, in part because of optimism about increased production of Zepbound, diabetes drug Mounjaro diabetes injection and similar drugs for the rest of the year.
Eli Lilly has several manufacturing plants that are “expanding or under construction,” including two in North Carolina, two in Indiana, one in Ireland and one in Germany, as well as a seventh plant recently acquired, executives said on an earnings call financial.
Meanwhile, investors were less impressed by Novo Nordisk’s Thursday session.
Wegova’s first-quarter sales nearly doubled, but were below analysts’ expectations. This means that Novo Nordisk is having difficulty meeting demand for this treatment.
However, Novo Nordisk also pointed to stiff competition from Eli Lilly’s Zepbound, which has shaken up Wegova’s U.S. pricing momentum
“Net prices” for both Wegova 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 on a first-quarter earnings call.
