Novo Nordisk reports positive obesity drug trial data

Novo Nordisk has announced positive headline results from a clinical trial assessing liraglutide as a means of treating obesity among nondiabetic patients.

Data from the phase IIIa study demonstrated the potential of the drug in inducing and maintaining weight loss in people without diabetes who are obese or overweight with comorbidities such as prediabetes, hypertension and dyslipidaemia.

It was shown that the average weight loss for those receiving liraglutide at 56 weeks was eight percent, compared to 2.6 percent for people treated with placebo.

Novo Nordisk expects to complete the remaining phase IIIa trial in the Scale study programme in the third quarter of 2013, with EU and US regulatory filings for liraglutide to follow later in the year.

Mads Krogsgaard Thomsen, executive vice-president and chief science officer of Novo Nordisk, said: "This data, together with previously reported phase III trials, consistently demonstrate clinically significant weight loss and improvements in obesity-related risk factors in people with obesity."

Last week, the company also announced data from Paradigm 2, a new study that underlined the benefits of the investigational haemophilia B therapy N9-GP.