Novo's oral semaglutide beats Victoza and Januvia in diabetes

Novo Nordisk has released new data for its oral semaglutide diabetes therapy from two trials, showing that the GLP-1 analogue was more effective in reducing HbA1c and weight in patients compared to MSD’s Januvia (sitagliptin) and its own best-selling injectable treatment Victoza.

In the first trial, comparing the therapy’s efficacy to Victoza in 711 participants with type 2 diabetes whose condition was inadequately controlled on metformin with or without an SGLT-2 inhibitor, oral semaglutide reduced HbA1c levels by 1.3% and 1.2% at weeks 26 and 52 compared to 1.1% and 0.9%. Body weight reduction from baseline was 4.7kg and 5.0kg on the same timeline, compared to 3.2kg and 3.1kg with Victoza, while 69% of participants achieved the American Diabetes Association (ADA) treatment target of HbA1c levels below 7.0%

In the second study of 504 participants with type 2 diabetes inadequately controlled on 1-2 oral antidiabetics, oral semaglutide was shown to be statistically superior to Januvia according to the proportion of patients who achieved the ADA’s aforementioned treatment target, with 63% compared to 28% from a baseline of 8.3% after 52 weeks. Oral semglutide also reduced body weight b2.9kg compared to 0.8kg.

The good news sent Novo’s shares rising by more than 4%.

"With the significant one-year results in a real-world dose setting, oral semaglutide was superior to sitagliptin by documenting a greater proportion of people achieving the ADA target," said Mads Krogsgaard Thomsen, Executive Vice President and Chief Science Officer of Novo Nordisk. "At the same time, we have shown that oral semaglutide is even more efficacious in lowering glucose and body weight than the most widely used injectable GLP-1 treatment, Victoza."