GLP-1

Therapeutic peptides, as well as broader biologics and biotherapeutics, are rapidly reshaping the treatment landscape for chronic diseases, offering precision, potency and specificity that small molecules often can’t match. Among peptide-based therapeutics, such as, Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists – including semaglutide and liraglutide – have emerged as game changers in managing type 2 diabetes,…

On Monday, Novo Nordisk announced that the results from its Phase 3 trial investigating semaglutide as a treatment for Alzheimer’s “did not confirm the superiority of semaglutide versus placebo in the reduction of progression,” of the disease, according to the press release.  Monday’s announcement had a silver lining. That is, the treatment did result in…

On Thursday, the Trump administration announced agreements with Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk to reduce the prices of the companies’ GLP-1 drugs for Americans. Under the agreements, Ozempic and Wegovy will be sold at $350 per month and Zepbound for an average of $346 per month, depending on dose, when purchased through TrumpRx, a platform…

Pfizer has filed two lawsuits against the metabolic-focused startup Metsera and Novo Nordisk as of Tuesday. The first suit, filed last Friday, claims that Novo Nordisk’s rival bid for Metsera is a move “to suppress competition,” Pfizer said in a press release.  Metsera could be a vital acquisition for either company. The company is developing…

New CMC Process R&D center will add peptide and oligo-intermediate capabilities, expand analytical and formulation labs and target completion by September 2026. Sai Life Sciences plans to build a 100,000-sq-ft CMC Process R&D center at its integrated R&D campus in Hyderabad, aiming to double its process R&D capacity by September 2026. The project adds dedicated…

Once so valuable its market capitalization eclipsed that of its home country of Denmark, pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk is now showing signs of strain. Most recently, several members of Novo Nordisk’s board of directors quit after failing to reach an agreement with the Novo Nordisk Foundation, the firm’s controlling shareholder (via Novo Holdings), on the…

It took just one off-hand comment during a White House event about fertility treatments for President Trump to temporarily wipe tens of billions from the market cap of the world’s leading obesity drugmakers. Trump’s vow Thursday to bring Ozempic down to $150 per month, calling it “the fat-loss drug,” sent Novo Nordisk shares down 6.3%…

Novo Nordisk has agreed to acquire Akero Therapeutics, a clinical-stage company that develops treatments for metabolic diseases, the company announced last week.  Akero’s EFX pipeline Akero Therapeutics’ treatment for metabolic-dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) “is closely linked with Novo Nordisk’s expertise in diabetes and obesity,” the press release stated. More than 40% of patients with MASH, formerly…

Novo Nordisk has laid off dozens of employees at its plant in North Carolina, an analysis of LinkedIn posts by Reuters found. The layoffs come after the company announced a plan to cut 9,000 jobs globally in an effort to compete with Eli Lilly last month. The exact number of layoffs at the Clayton plant…

Novo Nordisk, the manufacturer of Ozempic, announced a plan to reduce its global workforce by approximately 9,000 positions today. Around 5,000 positions are expected to be cut in Denmark. This will reduce the company’s workforce from its current 78,400 positions to approximately 69,400.  The company’s stock has fallen about 58% over the past year as…

Modern medicine and vaccines have saved millions of lives, but this comes with an environmental cost. A 2019 report by Health Care Without Harm found that the broader health care sector contributes 4.4% of the global total net emissions. This is equivalent to two gigatons of carbon dioxide, the annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from…

A new analysis reveals GLP-1 use among U.S. adults without diabetes tripled between 2018 and 2022, driving annual spending by this group alone to $5.8 billion by the end of that period. Published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, the Australian study, conducted by researchers at The University of Melbourne, analyzed nationally representative data from…

The GLP-1 drug market continues to boom lately thanks to highly effective new medications like Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and continued demand for the drug class in diabetes. The runaway success of Wegovy and Ozempic (both formulations of semaglutide) has caused Novo Nordisk’s share price to skyrocket in 2023, briefly making the Danish pharmaceutical company the most…

FDA has approved Mounjaro (tirzepatide), the first glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) and glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) for treating adults with type 2 diabetes. Developed by Eli Lilly and Co., tirzepatide could quickly become a mega-blockbuster. Annual sales of the drug could approach $14 billion by 2030, according to Mizuho Securities. To win approval, Lilly provided data…

FDA has approved Wegovy, the weekly semaglutide treatment for obesity from Novo Nordisk (CPH:NOVO-B). The agency approved the use of semaglutide for type 2 diabetes in 2017. FDA approved an oral formulation for diabetes in 2019. Semaglutide is a glucagon-like peptide (GLP-1) receptor agonist (RA) that continues to find wider use. In clinical trials, Novo Nordisk people…