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Novo Nordisk (NVO) Stock Drops 15% After CagriSema Fails to Beat Eli Lilly’s Zepbound

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NVO Stock Card

TLDR

  • Novo Nordisk stock fell 15% after CagriSema failed to prove non-inferiority to Eli Lilly’s tirzepatide in an 84-week trial.
  • CagriSema delivered 23% weight loss vs. 25.5% for tirzepatide — missing its primary endpoint.
  • The stock hit its lowest level since June 2021, down nearly 50% over the past year.
  • Novo’s CEO remains confident in CagriSema, citing its potential as the first GLP-1/amylin combo drug on the market.
  • Eli Lilly stock rose 3.1% in premarket trading on the news.

Novo Nordisk took another hit on Monday. The stock fell as much as 15% after the company revealed its next-generation weight loss drug, CagriSema, failed to prove it was just as good as Eli Lilly’s tirzepatide in a head-to-head trial.


NVO Stock Card
Novo Nordisk A/S, NVO

The result sent NVO to its lowest price since June 2021.

In the late-stage trial, patients on CagriSema lost 23% of their body weight over 84 weeks. Those on tirzepatide — the active ingredient in Lilly’s Mounjaro and Zepbound — lost 25.5%.

That gap meant CagriSema missed its primary endpoint: showing non-inferiority to tirzepatide.

The trial was open-label, meaning participants knew which drug they were taking. Novo’s Chief Scientific Officer Martin Holst Lange said this design can introduce bias toward a well-known product when tested against an experimental one.

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Lange said he was “surprised” by tirzepatide’s 25.5% result, pointing out that Lilly’s own studies have shown the drug producing around 20.2% weight loss over 72 weeks.

CEO Stays Optimistic

Despite the miss, CEO Mike Doustdar pushed back on the negativity. “We strongly believe that CagriSema has, right now, the best weight efficacy than any product currently in the market,” he said.

Novo filed CagriSema with the FDA late last year, and a decision is expected by late 2026. Doustdar said he expects it to reach the market early next year with the best weight-loss label available.

The company is also exploring additional trials, including higher-dose combinations, to maximize the drug’s potential.

CagriSema combines semaglutide — the ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy — with cagrilintide, an experimental hormone that affects appetite. Novo has positioned it as the first GLP-1/amylin combination treatment for obesity.

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A Rough Run for Novo

This is not an isolated setback. When Novo first released CagriSema late-stage data in December 2024, the stock dropped 21% and wiped out nearly $100 billion in market value.

Over the past year, NVO has lost close to 50% of its value.

Earlier this month, Novo forecast a sales and profit decline of between 5% and 13% for 2026. The company is dealing with rising competition, lower U.S. prices, and upcoming patent expirations on Wegovy and Ozempic in some markets.

Jefferies analyst Michael Leuchten noted that CagriSema’s commercial positioning is “increasingly unclear” following Monday’s results. He estimated the drug could account for 15% to 25% of Novo’s revenue by 2030 and said the situation highlights “the pressing need for M&A,” forecasting Novo could spend up to $35 billion on acquisitions this year.

Meanwhile, Eli Lilly’s stock rose 3.1% in premarket trading Monday.

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Novo’s Copenhagen-listed stock was last seen down 14% at 259 Danish kroner.

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Crypto World

South Korea Tightens Crypto Rules with 5-minute Asset Verification Mandate

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South Korea Tightens Crypto Rules with 5-minute Asset Verification Mandate

South Korea has ordered all crypto exchanges to reconcile their internal ledgers with actual asset holdings every five minutes after an inspection uncovered weaknesses in internal controls.

The directive was announced on Monday by the Financial Services Commission (FSC) after a meeting with top crypto exchanges and the Digital Asset Exchange Alliance (DAXA), during which they discussed the findings of an emergency inspection triggered by the Bithumb payout incident.

The inspection found that three of the country’s five major exchanges were reconciling balances only once every 24 hours, limiting their ability to respond quickly to discrepancies. Systems designed to halt trading during major mismatches were also found to be insufficient, raising concerns about how exchanges would handle large-scale errors.

In February, Bithumb mistakenly distributed 620,000 Bitcoin (BTC) to 249 users during a promotional event. The exchange later announced that it recovered 99.7% of the funds the same day. The remaining 0.3%, 1,788 BTC that had already been sold, was covered using company reserves.

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Related: Bithumb seeks to reappoint CEO despite recent controversies: Report

South Korea mandates five-minute asset checks

Under the new measures, exchanges must implement automated ledger-to-wallet reconciliation systems operating on a five-minute cycle. They will also be required to introduce defined criteria for triggering automatic transaction halts in the event of significant discrepancies.

Beyond reconciliation, regulators are pushing for sweeping changes to internal operations. High-risk processes like promotional payouts will require stronger oversight, including third-party cross-checks and multi-level approval systems. Exchanges will also need to separate high-risk accounts and implement automated verification tools for payments.

Top Korean crypto exchanges. Source: CoinGecko

Furthermore, external audits will shift from quarterly to monthly, while disclosures will expand to include detailed asset balances by wallet and ledger.

“The financial authorities and the DAXA plan to complete the rule changes needed to implement the improvement measures within April this year,” the FSC wrote.

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Related: South Korean brokerage Korea Investment & Securities eyes Coinone stake: Report

Bithumb delays IPO to post-2028

Last week, Bithumb announced it is now targeting an IPO after 2028, marking another delay from its earlier 2025 plans as it works through restructuring and regulatory pressure. The exchange said it will focus on strengthening accounting policies and internal controls through 2027, following an advisory agreement with Samjong KPMG.

Meanwhile, Naver Financial has also delayed its planned share swap with Dunamu by about three months, now targeting a shareholder vote on Aug. 18 and completion by Sept. 30.

Magazine: South Korea gets rich from crypto… North Korea gets weapons

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