Novo's Ozempic Pill Fails in Alzheimer's Effort

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00:00Madison, I think people might be initially confused that we're talking about Alzheimer's

00:03when we're talking about Ozempic because this is the anti-obesity drug, but this is something

00:08that Novo Nordisk was looking into, maybe seeing if it had the capability to affect

00:14or improve situations for folks with Alzheimer's, and the results show that that hope was misplaced.

00:22That's exactly right, Scarlett, and it's good to point out that, yes, this is a diabetes

00:27and weight loss drugs, so people might definitely be confused about why Novo was even running

00:32an Alzheimer's trial in the first place, but we've talked about on the show the fact that

00:37these GLP-1 drugs have tons of health benefits.

00:41We've seen impacts on the liver, on kidneys, on heart, on sleep apnea, all of these things

00:46that these drugs have the potential to help with, and so one of the things that Novo was

00:51exploring was whether or not these drugs also had a potential to impact people with Alzheimer's

00:56disease.

00:57There's some evidence, some research to suggest that there's a link between diabetes and the

01:02development of Alzheimer's, but ultimately what this study showed was that the GLP-1 drugs

01:09did not, or Novos at least specifically, did not help slow progression of the disease, and

01:16so there is some potential that maybe in a prevention study of sorts, it could help people from actually

01:23developing Alzheimer's altogether, but that would be sort of a separate study, and the

01:28consensus today at least is that, you know, that the drugs did not help slow the progression

01:33of the disease, which is notoriously tricky to treat and develop drugs for anyway.

01:39For sure, and we're seeing the disappointment reflected in Novo Nordisk's shares.

01:44However, were analysts, were investors counting on this trial to be groundbreaking?

01:48It would potentially have been groundbreaking, but I think that it was sort of a long shot

01:54anyways, and a lot of analysts and investors knew that, but Novos had a really difficult

02:00year.

02:01You know, a CEO change, their stock price is down significantly this year.

02:05They're falling behind to their arch rival Eli Lilly, which makes the shot ZEP bound, and

02:11so this was one of the reasons why people were holding on to Novos stock, because there would

02:16be significant upside if these trials were to be successful, but it was always sort of

02:21a long shot, and I think people that have been watching this company for a long time knew

02:25that, and unfortunately, another disappointment in what's been a really tough year for Novo.

02:32I guess we should point out, too, that this was the pill version of Ozempic, and we know

02:35that most people get or use Ozempic through the injection.

02:39Have they done tests on that, because if it's the ingredient, semaglutide, that people think

02:45might have some efficacy in addressing dementia and Alzheimer's, maybe it's the form in which

02:51that ingredient is injected or given.

02:55Yeah, you're right, that this is the same.

02:57So this pill, Ribelsis, has the same active ingredient as Ozempic and Wigofy, which are Novos

03:03weight loss and diabetes shots, and so I think there's potential, maybe it would have to be

03:11a different study, but it's interesting because Novos rival, Lilly, is not running the same

03:16studies of its GLP-1 shot Z-bound in people with Alzheimer's, and Lilly actually has a really

03:23extensive history in Alzheimer's disease.

03:25They've spent billions of dollars over the last decade studying Alzheimer's.

03:30They actually do have an Alzheimer's treatment approved on the market now.

03:34It's called Casunla, and so that was something that people looked to also, is like, if there

03:40was really a promising signal here, why isn't Lilly, who has this history and this established

03:46presence in Alzheimer's disease, not running similar studies?

03:50So it's an interesting story, and it's unfortunate for people with Alzheimer's that are still waiting

03:56for better treatments, but I think that there will still be some continued research in this space.

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