AmgenAmazon stock rose more than 12% on Friday after the drugmaker teased positive preliminary data on its experimental weight-loss injection.
This has raised investor concerns about new competition in the fast-growing weight-loss drug industry, sending shares of existing players in the obesity space scrambling. Novo Nordisk And Eli Lilly, low on Friday. Eli Lilly shares fell about 3%, while U.S.-traded Novo Nordisk shares fell more than 1%.
Novo Nordisk stock was already under pressure Thursday after sales of its blockbuster weight-loss injection Wegovy beat analysts' estimates for the first quarter due to lower prices.
During Thursday's first-quarter earnings call, Amgen CEO Bob Bradway said he was “very encouraged” by early results from a mid-stage study of the company's obesity injection, MariTide. Investors have been focused on this drug and the rest of Amgen's weight-loss drug pipeline as it competes with several other drug makers to join the booming market.
“We are confident in MariTide's diverse 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 leakage was not a problem. He said Amgen is on track to release preliminary data from the study in late 2024 and also plans to conduct late-stage studies in patients with obesity and obesity-related conditions and diabetes.
Bradway also highlighted the potential competitive advantages of the injection, which patients will take using a handheld auto-injector once a month or even less frequently. This can provide much greater relief than weekly injections on the market, such as Novo Nordisk's Wegovy and Eli Lilly's Zepbound.
“While there has been significant controversy about the potential efficacy and safety of MariTide since the initial disclosure of phase 1 data in 2022, we have become more confident that the treatment can be meaningfully differentiated from other therapies in development, particularly with regard to the efficacy and safety of MariTide,” said Matt Phipps, an analyst at William. Blair, in a research note on Friday, said the company was working to raise its rating on Amgen shares to “outperform.”
It is worth noting that Amgen said it had canceled its experimental oral obesity drug. But that development wasn't as significant as MariTide's update, Jefferies analyst Michael Yee said in a research note Thursday.
Amgen's Bradway said the company has begun expanding manufacturing for MariTide. This is a sign that the company is preparing to produce enough of the drug — a major problem that Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly have dealt with over the past year and a half.
However, investors were happy with Eli Lilly on Tuesday after the company assured them it can overcome ongoing supply constraints for its popular drugs. Eli Lilly raised its full-year guidance in part due to optimism about ramping up production of Zepbound, Mounjaro diabetes injection and similar drugs for the rest of the year.
Eli Lilly has several manufacturing sites either “constructed or under construction,” including two in North Carolina, two in Indiana, one in Ireland, one in Germany, as well as a seventh, executives said during the earnings call. Recently acquired.
Meanwhile, investors were less impressed with Novo Nordisk on Thursday.
Wegovy's sales nearly doubled during the first quarter but came in below analysts' expectations. This suggests 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 Wegovy's pricing dynamics in the US.
“Net pricing” for both Wegovy and Ozempic will be lower in the U.S. over the course of the year due to “increasing volume and competition,” CFO Carsten Munk Knudsen said on a first-quarter earnings call Thursday.
