Oral semaglutide scores well in PIONEER 9 trial

Danish diabetes care giant Novo Nordisk (NOV: N) got a boost on Friday with the latest findings from a series of studies with its oral form of the diabetes drug semaglutide, sending the firm’s shares up 3.66% to 297.00 Danish kroner by close of trading.

Novo Nordisk released positive headline results from PIONEER 9, a 52-week trial with oral semaglutide versus its own drug Victoza (0.9mg liraglutide) and versus placebo, all as monotherapy, in Japanese adults with type 2 diabetes. The injectable form of semaglutide is already marketed under the Ozempic trade name.

The trial achieved its primary endpoint by demonstrating non-inferiority of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) with oral semaglutide compared with placebo, both in addition to standard of care. The results are based on the accumulated occurrence of 137 major adverse cardiovascular events, with a median follow-up time of 16 months. The primary endpoint of the PIONEER 6 trial was defined as the MACE composite outcome of the first occurrence of cardiovascular death, non-fatal myocardial infarction or non-fatal stroke and showed a hazard ratio of 0.79 in favour of oral semaglutide compared with placebo. The 21% reduction in MACE in favor of oral semaglutide did not reach statistical significance.