(Reuters) – Amgen shares soared 14% in pre-market on Friday after the U.S. drugmaker signaled encouraging interim trial data for its obesity drug, hurting rivals such as Novo Nordisk. However, analysts were frustrated by the lack of detail.
The company is conducting a mid-term study of the injectable and, based on interim data, is “confident in Maritide's differentiated profile and believes it can address important unmet medical needs.” Stated.
“The dosing schedule is likely to be once a month or less frequently, meaning that treatment is administered weekly, for example,” Amgen CEO Robert Bradway told investors late Thursday. “This means we have far fewer injection devices than our competitors,” he told investors.
But Amgen did not provide details on the actual data, saying it plans to begin late-stage research later this year.
Mizuho analyst Salim Saeed acknowledged there was a “seemingly more optimistic tone” about the drug series, but added: “We would argue that many questions remain unanswered.” said.
Saeed said these questions include manufacturing plans, given that rivals Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk are competing to expand supply and Amgen plans to move forward in the commercial market. It was also included.
Supply of Lilly and Novo's powerful new weight-loss drugs is already lagging behind soaring demand, and several other drug companies are losing ground on a market share that some analysts expect to reach $100 billion by the end of the decade. They are eager to acquire it.
Amgen's comments sent rival stocks lower on Friday. Eli Lilly fell 2.6% and Novohe Nordisk's Denmark-listed shares fell 4.4%, marking the biggest one-day decline since August 2022.
“Today's Novo stock price is certainly pricing in the negative reaction to Amgen's positive comments on the Maritide development yesterday,” said David Evans, an analyst at Kepler Shoe Blue.
Evans said Novo's comments on Thursday about lowering the price of its weight loss drug Wegoby also weighed on the stock.
Shares of Viking Therapeutics, a small weight-loss drug developer, fell 6% in premarket.
Amgen stock, a component of the blue-chip Dow Jones index, rose 14.1% to $317.65 in premarket trading.
The company's stock trades at 13.9 times expected earnings for the next 12 months, compared to Novo Nordisk's forward price/earnings ratio of 34.2 times and Eli Lilly's forward price/earnings ratio of 48.49 times.
(Reporting by Manas Mishra and Kristi Santosh in Bengaluru and Elvira Luoma in Gdańsk; Editing by Sonia Cheema and Devika Shamnath)