A field of Ozempic and contents sit on a desk in Dudley, North Tyneside, Britain, October 31, 2023.
George Frey | Reuters
Novo Nordisk traders appeared unperturbed Thursday by a vital Harvard report that linked weight reduction medication to a uncommon eye situation.
Semaglutide, which is current in weight reduction medication together with Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy, may be related to an elevated threat of a uncommon eye illness, in accordance with a study carried out by Harvard Medical College.
Analysts mentioned the research outcomes have been “hardly a game-changer,” nevertheless. Shares within the Danish pharmaceutical firm’s shares have been little modified on Thursday, dipping in early morning commerce earlier than rising 0.1% as of 11:17 a.m. London time.
The Harvard report discovered that sufferers with kind 2 diabetes or weight problems, who’re prescribed semaglutide, have an elevated threat of nonarteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION) — a situation which might result in lack of imaginative and prescient in a single eye. Sufferers have been extra more likely to be recognized with the attention situation in comparison with sufferers who weren’t prescribed the burden loss medication, the research discovered.
Whereas the analysis paper does counsel “some correlation” with a uncommon ocular occasion, the standard of the proof is “vey low, the error bars are very broad,” in accordance with Deutsche Financial institution analyst Emmanuel Papadakis.
The worst case situation would possible be an additional replace to the label warning part of the medication, which is “hardly a game-changer,” mentioned Papadakis.
He added that Deutsche Financial institution usually regards semaglutide drugs as “probably the most derisked therapeutic lessons in trade historical past from a security perspective.”
A spokesperson from Novo Nordisk mentioned the optic nerve illness NAION will not be an “antagonistic drug response for the marketed formulations of semaglutide” as per the permitted labels. They added that there are “key methodological limitations” to the research such because the “small variety of individuals” with kind 2 diabetes or weight problems that have been uncovered to semaglutide and have been included within the trial.
“Affected person security is a prime precedence for Novo Nordisk, and we take all experiences about antagonistic occasions from use of our medicines very critically,” the spokesperson mentioned.
Reputation for the blockbuster medication has seen Novo Nordisk develop to turn out to be essentially the most helpful firm in Europe, with a valuation bigger than Denmark’s whole gross home product final yr.
Wegovy has additionally been proven to have well being advantages past dropping pounds and regulating blood sugar. The Meals and Drug Administration in March approved it to be used in lowering the danger of coronary heart illness.
The medication, nevertheless, have confronted scrutiny after some sufferers reported experiencing stomach paralysis and suicidal ideation whereas taking them. A research carried out by researchers on the College of British Columbia famous an elevated threat of bowel obstruction, a dysfunction the place meals is blocked from passing by means of the small or giant gut, and pancreatitis, or pancreas irritation.
The labels for the medication already embrace warnings about pancreatitis and certain types of bowel obstruction. A change in imaginative and prescient can be listed as a possible facet impact for each Ozempic and Wegovy.
The U.S. research, which was printed on Wednesday, analysed knowledge from 16,827 sufferers from December 2017 by means of to November final yr. The researchers famous that additional research is required to evaluate whether or not semaglutide causes the attention situation.
CNBC’s Jenni Reid contributed to this report.
