Novo Nordisk announced positive trial results for its next-generation obesity drug, leading to a 7.13% surge in its share price on Friday. View on euronews

Novo Nordisk's U.S.-listed shares are surging 9% Friday morning after the Danish drugmaker reported early stage results for its amycretin weight-loss drug.

Novo Nordisk said a higher dose of its drug Wegovy led to greater weight loss in patients during a late-stage trial, but the results fell short of the weight loss achieved with Eli Lilly's rival drug Zepbound,

The new treatment targets gut hormone GLP-1 but also mimics amylin, a hormone released by the pancreas that suppresses hunger.

An experimental drug called amycretin showed signs it could be more potent than Eli Lilly’s rival Zepbound, though analysts cautioned certain aspects of the study may have inflated its performance.

Just how much Medicare price negotiations will negatively impact Novo Nordisk, though, depends on what the final negotiated prices for Ozempic, Wegovy, and Rybelsus will be. In Medicare's negotiations for 2026, the new prices achieved an average of 22% savings.

One of Novo Nordisk's next-generation obesity shots to follow up on the success of Wegovy helped patients lose 22% of their weight in 36 weeks, according to early-stage trial results on Friday, boosting the drugmaker's shares.

Novo Nordisk has reported 22% weight loss in people who received weekly amycretin injections for 36 weeks, triggering an 11% jump in the Danish drugmaker’s share price in premarket trading.

Novo Nordisk is currently leading the market for incretin therapies with semaglutide-based products Ozempic for type 2 diabetes and Wegovy for obesity, but is coming under competitive pressure from rival therapies from Eli Lilly based on dual GIP/GLP-1 agonist tirzepatide.

Wegovy, the weight-loss brand of semaglutide, has a recommended maintenance dose of 2.4 mg. Novo ran the Phase III STEP UP trial to evaluate the effect of increasing the maximum dose to 7.2 mg. The trial randomized 1,407 adults with obesity, but not diabetes, to receive either 7.2 mg or 2.4 mg of semaglutide or placebo.

Novo Nordisk on Friday announced early-stage trial results for its amycretin obesity drug for subcutaneous injection, saying people with obesity or overweight treated with the drug achieved a 22% weight loss after 36 weeks.