Novo Nordisk's Ozempic outperforms Eli Lilly's Trulicity, shares see biggest jump in a month

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In a highly anticipated drug showdown, Novo Nordisk achieved a crucial victory.

A study involving nearly 60,000 diabetes and heart disease patients using Medicare data showed that patients taking Ozempic had a 23% lower risk of heart attack, stroke, or death compared to those using Trulicity. Novo Nordisk announced this result at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes conference held in Vienna.

This result is highly significant for Novo Nordisk and supports its arguments against Eli Lilly in the weight-loss drug competition. Eli Lilly, with its newer drugs Mounjaro and Zepbound, is taking market share and putting immense pressure on Novo Nordisk.

Boosted by this news, Novo Nordisk’s stock price once soared over 7%, marking its largest gain in a month. Previously, due to a series of clinical and commercial setbacks, the company's shares had fallen a cumulative 56% over the past 12 months.

Pharmaceutical Companies Race to Release Comparative Data

Currently, both pharmaceutical giants are racing to release research data to persuade doctors to prioritize their own products.

Just a day before Novo Nordisk released the above study, Eli Lilly announced its own research results. According to a head-to-head study released by Eli Lilly on Wednesday, its experimental oral weight-loss and diabetes drug orforglipron outperformed Novo Nordisk’s oral version of Ozempic—Rybelsus—in both weight loss and blood sugar control.

However, Novo Nordisk is advancing a higher dose study of Rybelsus, which has shown stronger weight loss effects in trials and is already approved in Europe for diabetes treatment.

In another head-to-head study released Thursday, Lilly’s Mounjaro showed roughly the same effectiveness as Trulicity in reducing heart attacks, strokes, and deaths. However, that randomized trial is not directly comparable to the Ozempic-Trulicity head-to-head, which is an analysis of real-world outcomes.

Doctors Still Need to Consider Individual Patient Differences

Stephen Nicholls, Director of the Victorian Heart Institute in Melbourne, who helped lead Lilly’s head-to-head trial, said that doctors still have reasons to choose Mounjaro over Trulicity. Mounjaro provides other benefits, such as greater weight loss and improvement in other obesity-related conditions. “We need to consider the individual patient in front of us,” he said.

In addition, Lilly presented another independent obesity trial for its oral weight-loss drug orforglipron at the conference, which received positive reviews from doctors who believe this new drug will broaden access to obesity medications and see widespread use.

In contrast to Lilly’s strategy, Novo Nordisk focuses more on demonstrating the real-world application of its drugs. Besides the key cardiovascular outcomes study, Novo Nordisk also released another study finding that its weight-loss injection Wegovy can effectively suppress “food noise”—intrusive thoughts about food.

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