Those following the Biznews Global Share portfolio will be celebrating a happier than usual Christmas. With a third invested in Vanguard’s S&P500 Index tracker, those who follow our model portfolio have enjoyed a double whammy lately with a surging Wall Street combining with the weakening Rand. More good news today from one of the underlying share picks, global insulin market leader Novo Nordisk, whose weight loss product has won access to the US market. With obesity hitting new highs in the Home of the Free, this breakthrough has obvious potential consequences for shareholders in the Danish company. – AH
By Anna Edney
(Bloomberg) — Novo Nordisk A/S won approval of a weight- loss injection, adding to a list of pharmaceutical options for Americans attempting to shrink their waistlines.
Novo Nordisk’s Saxenda was cleared for adults who are obese or overweight and have a related condition, such as high blood pressure, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said in a statement today. The company sells a lower dose of Saxenda’s active ingredient, liraglutide, as Victoza for Type 2 diabetes.
Saxenda will compete with Vivus Inc.’s Qsymia; Belviq, from Eisai Co. and Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc.; and Contrave, from Orexigen Therapeutics Inc. and Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. The rival drugs are delivered as pills.
Saxenda will carry a warning that thyroid tumors were observed in rodent studies and that it is unknown whether Saxenda causes the growths in humans, the FDA said. Novo Nordisk must conduct a study while the drug is on the market to assess incidents of medullary thyroid cancer.
The Bagsvaerd, Denmark-based company must conduct three additional studies: on the drug’s use by children; its effect on the growth, sexual maturation and central nervous system of immature rats; and an evaluation based on clinical trials that are under way on the potential risk of breast cancer.
The new drugs in the battle of the bulge are being studied for their effects on the heart. Saxenda raises heart rate, though what that means for patients is unclear. Novo Nordisk is studying the drug’s cardiovascular effects.
The addition of Contrave and Saxenda to the obesity market over the last few months may give a boost to a type of drug that many insurers and government health programs have refused to cover since Belviq and Qsymia were approved in 2012.
Saxenda is expected to generate $566 million in sales in 2017, according to the average of seven analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Victoza is estimated to bring in $2.8 billion in the same year. – BLOOMBERG
