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Fixes story to correct spelling of analyst’s name.
The trial success of Novo Nordisk’s hit drug against kidney failure sent shares of a German kidney dialysis services firm plummeting on Wednesday.
Fresenius Medical Care shares
FME,
FMS,
slumped as much as 24%, and shares of its part owner Fresenius
FRE,
lost as much as 13%, after Novo Nordisk halted a trial of semaglutide versus placebo on the progression of renal impairment in people with type 2 diabetes and chronic kidney disease early because of its efficacy.
Novo Nordisk shares
NOVO.B,
NVS,
jumped 4% in Copenhagen trade. The Danish drugmaker is the second-largest company in Europe by market cap, trailing only Nestle, heading into the day.
“We see kidney disease as one of the areas where GLP-1s could potentially negatively impact the size of the relevant patient population over time,” said analysts at Citi led by Veronika Dubajova. “The early stopping of the FLOW trial indeed suggests such an impact; it also points to a somewhat faster effect than we had previously contemplated.”
GLP-1 refers to the class of drugs used for diabetes and weight loss. Eli Lilly
LLY,
has similar drugs in the trial stage, and the two companies are expected to dominate the market for them.
Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic is the GLP-1 drug specifically for patients with type 2 diabetes. The trial was of 3,534 people with type 2 diabetes, with a median age of nearly 67 years, two-thirds of whom were at very high risk for chronic kidney disease progression.
The Danish drugmaker said it remains blinded to the results of the trial until it’s completed, which is expected in the first half of 2024.
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