Novo Nordisk ‘s (NYSE:NVO) (CSE:NOVOb) blockbuster weight-loss drug Wegovy may have difficulty securing approval from Medicare for coverage as a heart disease treatment, according to analysts at Deutsche Bank.
Over the weekend, executives at the Danish pharmaceutical group said that Wegovy had a “quite profound” impact on reducing the risk of non-fatal heart attacks by 28%, non-fatal stroke by 7% and heart-related death by 15% in overweight and obese patients who had pre-existing heart disease but not diabetes.
But in a note to clients on Monday, the Deutsche Bank analysts said “it may not be on the cards” that Medicare, which primarily provides health insurance for Americans aged 65 and over, will cover the drug as a cardiovascular treatment.
“[This] may pour some cold water on the GLP-1 space,” they wrote, referring to a class of type 2 diabetes drugs that both lowers blood sugar levels and promotes weight loss. “Furthermore, cardiologists we’ve spoken with cautioned that GLP-1 uptake by cardiologists may be slow given the field[‘]s poor track record of adopting other cardioprotective treatments.”
U.S.-listed shares in Novo Nordisk slipped in early trading on Monday.
The new data — presented by Novo Nordisk to a standing-room only crowd at the American Heart Association’s annual scientific meeting and published in the New England Journal of Medicine — rounded out initial findings from the drugmaker’s closely-watched Select trial, which showed that patients taking Wegovy lost an average of 15% of their weight and had a 20% lower chance of suffering from cardiovascular events when compared to a placebo.
When the preliminary data from the trial was released in August, shares in Novo Nordisk soared by as much as 16%, as investors bet that the results could entice health systems and insurers to cover the drug. Wegovy’s list price in the U.S. stands at more than $1,300 per month.
Novo Nordisk is banking on Wegovy to strengthen its position in the rapidly intensifying race to unlock a lurcrative obesity market that is projected to be worth over $100 billion a year. Last week, Novo Nordisk peer Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY) received approval from U.S. drug regulators for its weight-loss treatment Zepbound, while AstraZeneca (NASDAQ:AZN) has partnered with China’s Eccogene to develop an oral medicine in the same class as Wegovy.
