Quote from the NBC article:
GLP-1 drugs may be linked to a lower risk of cancer progression, according to new research that will be presented next week at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting.
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Published: 22 May 2026
Semaglutide versus placebo in individuals with poor weight loss after bariatric surgery: a double-blinded, randomized, placebo-controlled trial
The trial tracked the percentage of patients hitting strict weight loss thresholds at week 68:
10% Body Weight Loss: Achieved by 85% of the semaglutide group vs. 7% of the placebo group.
15% Body Weight Loss: Achieved by 62% of the semaglutide group vs. 7% of the placebo group.
20% Body Weight Loss: Achieved by 47% of the semaglutide group vs. 3% of the placebo group.
Secondary Metabolic Markers
Lowered blood glucose/glycemic levels.
Improved lipid profiles (cholesterol reduction).
Marked, self-reported improvements in health-related quality of life (HRQoL) scores.
Body Composition Outcomes
Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) scans confirmed that the weight loss was high-quality: the reduction was driven overwhelmingly by a decrease in total body fat mass while successfully preserving lean muscle mass.
Safety & Adverse Events Profile
The overall adverse event profile mirrored previous non-bariatric STEP trials. The most common side effects were mild-to-moderate gastrointestinal issues (nausea, reduced appetite, diarrhea) primarily concentrated during the initial dose-escalation phase.
Serious Incidents: There were exactly eight serious adverse events (SAEs) and one suspected unexpected serious adverse reaction (SUSAR) recorded across the study cohort.
There were zero treatment-related deaths.
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In conclusion, BARI-STEP, a randomized, placebo-controlled trial investigating the use of once-weekly semaglutide 2.4 mg in a post-bariatric patient population with a suboptimal clinical response, demonstrates that semaglutide 2.4 mg in patients with a suboptimal clinical response results in substantial, clinically relevant body weight reduction, and improvements in metabolic health and quality of life. AEs in the trial were in line with the reported safety and tolerability profile of semaglutide 2.4 mg, with most reported as mild, transient and predominantly gastrointestinal-related. These findings offer the evidence base to support the use of semaglutide 2.4 mg weekly in patients with a history of MBS and the rationale for suboptimal clinical response, posing an indication for treatment. The BARI-STEP results also strengthen the evidence base for a multimodal treatment approach for severe obesity using combination therapies. Treatment algorithms incorporating multidisciplinary combination therapies with MBS and pharmacotherapy for severe obesity are now warranted.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) recommended it today.
The next step is for the European Commission to review the EMA recommendation before granting marketing authorization, so stay tuned, but it should come soon.
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Bagsværd, Denmark, 22 May 2026 – Novo Nordisk today announced that the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) under the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has adopted a positive opinion, recommending marketing authorisation of Wegovy® pill (once-daily oral semaglutide 25 mg) to reduce excess body weight and maintain long-term weight reduction. The positive opinion also includes SELECT data in the label, demonstrating that Wegovy® reduces the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE)*.
Bagsværd, Denmark, 22 May 2026 - Novo Nordisk today announced that the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) under the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has adopted a positive opinion, recommending marketing authorisation of Wegovy® 7.2 mg (once-weekly injectable semaglutide 7.2 mg) in a single-dose pen for people living with obesity. Wegovy® 7.2 mg is already available in the EU for adults with obesity, dosed as three injections of 2.4 mg, and is based on results from the STEP UP trial programme.
If novo isn’t green you guys cry like a toddler without a toy.
This is bullish for NVO
New prescription data for
oral Wegovy:
Symphony Health data via Bloomberg shows total filled prescriptions rose to 109,777 in week 20 from 107,029 the prior week.
’s Foundayo also increased, reaching 2,520 prescriptions vs. 2,067 the week before.
Worth noting: Symphony does not include online pharmacies, telehealth platforms or NovoCare direct-to-consumer sales.
That matters. At Q1, Novo said oral Wegovy was already above 200,000 weekly prescriptions, while Symphony showed roughly half that level.
Data from our NOVO X Lord: https://x.com/investseekers/status/2057717955828260958
Wegovy pill data.
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May 22nd
The UAE's position as a global hub for pharmaceutical manufacturing has received a major boost, with Danish company Novo Nordisk announcing the opening of a regional distribution centre in the country — one of only three such facilities worldwide.
The company, known for its treatments for diabetes, obesity and rare diseases, said it chose the UAE because of the country's advanced investment and logistics capabilities, as well as its stable business environment.
The new facility will serve up to 70 countries across the Gulf, Africa and Central Asia. It will help provide treatment to more than 2.6 million patients across a population of over one billion people. The centre will connect production sites in Europe, Asia and the Americas with regional markets, making the UAE a key link in global pharmaceutical supply chains.
Novo Nordisk also plans to set up a scientific office and launch a training programme for Emirati nationals, further strengthening the UAE's position as a global hub for pharmaceutical investment.
Saeed bin Mubarak Al Hajeri, Minister of State and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Emirates Drug Establishment, said that keeping medicines available is now a key part of the country's economic security.
"Pharmaceutical security is no longer solely a health concept; it has become a fundamental pillar of the national economic security framework, particularly in light of global supply chain challenges," he said.
Dr Fatima Al Kaabi, Director General of the Emirates Drug Establishment, said the growth of the UAE's pharmaceutical sector shows that the country has a mature system that can attract global investment and turn it into real value for the national economy.
May 22nd
BENGALURU, May 22 (Reuters) - Novo Nordisk is aiming to slash the time it takes to bring new drugs to market by up to two-thirds using AI, a top executive said, as the Danish drugmaker looks to regain momentum in the booming obesity drugs market.
"Historically, from 'last patient, last visit' to first filing might have been a year and a half. What we're able to do now by implementing AI is bring that time down by months," John Dawber, managing director for global business services, told a Reuters summit on Friday.
The Danish drugmaker is deploying AI across critical parts of the launch process, including drafting regulatory documents, analysing safety data and supporting commercial analytics for both marketed drugs and those in clinical trials.
The push reflects a broader industry shift, with drugmakers increasingly betting on AI to speed up research, streamline their workflow and cut costs.
Industry forecasts suggest machine learning could halve early-stage development timelines within the next three to five years.
Novo is targeting deeper gains, with Dawber saying rapid advances in AI tools, now embedded widely across its India operations, could accelerate the timeline more sharply.
INDIA TAKES CENTRE STAGE
Novo's Bengaluru centre is playing an increasingly central role in global drug launches, handling a growing share of preparatory work, including for its recently launched oral obesity pill in the United States.
"A good proportion of the work for any market (launch) would be done out of the India centre. There's probably not a medicine launched anywhere in the world that hasn't had a thumbprint of Bangalore on it," Dawber said.
As soon as Novo Nordisk shares regain any momentum, the next day we have something like this...🙄
Oh I love this stock, looking forward to holding until 2045 for it to reach 50 USD like a true value investor. Close the app. Touch grass, the stock is solid, management is world class. Totally ignore that the stock crashes 2% on nothing day after day until the value of your investment has been eaten away by inflation and every AI / startup bs stock has appreciated by 5000%. Life is good as a value investor.
Seriously. Some of y'all -2% complainers need to just delete your investing-ahem, gambling -mobile app.
Seeing red every day will make you sell a quality business for a loss. I've found that focusing on the fundamentals is far healthier than the price. Literally just read the headlines, but don't check your stock, analyze the data for what it is, and not for what the market prices it to be. Morningstar is a great example of this. Get a library card, and then you can access their NVO report for free!
This saying goes both ways as well. Be cautious if you are getting excited over a 5-10% pump (in our case, almost never XD) because then, when the stock is not pumping 5-10%, you'll ask stupid questions. And those stupid questions will lead to stupid decisions.
For reference, I own 67.## shares at an average cost of 50.##, which is 25% of my portfolio.
Buy, HODL, retire. It will take a few years for our bullish thesis to play out. If the movements are too much to stomach, throw 10-15% of your porfolio into as something stable like SCHD.
Published at the end of last month, researchers from King’s College London are co-authors on a major new report from the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL)–Lancet Commission on Liver Health in Europe, which warns that liver disease is an escalating public health crisis across the WHO European Region.
Every day in Europe, nearly 780 people die from cirrhosis or liver cancer – conditions that are largely preventable. The report calls on governments to implement stronger prevention policies and integrate liver health into broader non-communicable disease (NCD) strategies.
The EASL–Lancet Commission on Liver Health in Europe brings together leading experts in hepatology, public health, mental health, economics, patient representatives, and health policy to assess the burden of liver disease and propose evidence-based strategies to improve liver health across the region. The Commission's first report was published in 2021.
The Commission's second report, From Evidence to Impact: Implementing Sustainable Liver Health in Europe (published on the 29th of April 2026) finds that cirrhosis and liver cancer together account for approximately 284,000 deaths annually in Europe. Liver cancer mortality has increased by more than 50% since 2000 – from around 43,000 deaths to approximately 69,000 in 2023. Crucially, liver disease remains one of the few major NCDs still growing, even as Europe has made progress against conditions like heart disease and cancer.
The report also looked at the economic impact of liver disease. The data show that in the absence of liver disease, the combined economies of EU countries and associated European states would be larger by approximately €55 billion annually, with liver disease reducing GDP by around 0.3% across the region – a direct reflection of lost productivity, premature death and workforce absence.
According to the report, alcohol consumption and obesity, alongside viral hepatitis, remain the principal causes of liver-related mortality in Europe. The prevalence of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) continues to rise, driven by obesity, unhealthy diets and alcohol use.
These risks are strongly shaped by commercial determinants of health – the marketing, pricing and availability of alcohol and unhealthy foods – highlighting the need for stronger industry regulation and policies that create healthier environments, the Commission states.
(...)
The Commission identifies three priorities for meaningful progress:
The Lancet
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Last month, another crucial study was published.
"The study is part of the European LIVERSCREEN project, funded by the Horizon 2020 programme and promoted and coordinated by IDIBAPS. It is the largest population‑based liver fibrosis screening study conducted to date. Nearly 30,000 individuals aged over 40 from nine European countries were assessed using FibroScan, a non‑invasive technique that measures liver stiffness and allows fibrosis to be estimated without the need for a biopsy.
The results show that 1.6% of the population studied had previously undiagnosed liver disease with fibrosis, a relevant figure given the absence of symptoms and the fact that this was a general population sample. In the initial screening phase, 4.6% of participants showed elevated FibroScan values suggestive of fibrosis and were referred to hospital for specialised confirmatory testing. In the diagnostic confirmation phase, 32% of those assessed in hospital were found to have chronic liver disease with fibrosis, representing approximately 1.6% of the total population analysed."
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This volume explosion reflects a massive structural transformation in how modern medicine treats metabolic conditions on both sides of the Atlantic. Diabetes In Control—a leading US clinical resource overseen by physicians—recently highlighted that screening for fatty liver disease is no longer just a passive checklist during an annual checkup, signaling a global shift.
We are officially entering an era where diabetes care and hepatology deeply overlap. Because type 2 diabetes and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) share identical metabolic roots, endocrinologists and hepatologists are aggressively building integrated workflows to treat metabolic dysfunction and liver tissue scarring simultaneously.
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Novo Nordisk
The European Association for the Study of Obesity (EASO) just dropped its updated Algorithm 2.0 framework, which serves as the gold-standard clinical guide for European physicians. In a massive win for Novo, the update explicitly gives semaglutide exclusive first-line recommendation for treating liver fibrosis improvement. While Eli Lilly’s tirzepatide shares a recommendation with semaglutide for general MASH resolution, its fibrosis data is lagging.
Last year, Novo Nordisk completely acquired last year Akero Therapeutics for $5.2 billion. Akero's flagship asset, efruxifermin, is widely regarded across clinical trials as a potential best-in-class candidate for late-stage liver damage, being the only therapy to show significant fibrosis regression even in severe F4 cirrhosis patients during Phase 2.
Novo leadership has already explicitly mapped out the commercial play here. Efruxifermin gives Novo the ultimate flexibility: it can be sold as a powerful standalone cornerstone therapeutic for late-stage liver failure, or seamlessly combined with semaglutide.
Worth mentioning that In February 2026, the European Medicines Agency’s gave a glowing positive review, which led to the official EU approval of semaglutide for MASH (marketed under the brand name Kayshild in Europe for this indication) on March 26, 2026. However, Kayshild has yet to hit the market and Novo Nordisk is in the logistical setup phase.
With Kayshild securing early-stage clinical guidelines and Akero covering late-stage risks, Novo Nordisk has established a formidable, comprehensive frontline defense in the European metabolic liver space.
As announced earlier this week, at the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) Annual Congress 2026 on 27-30 May in Barcelona, Spain, Novo Nordisk is presenting a comprehensive portfolio of new data highlighting a long-overdue spotlight on metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis — better known as MASH — a progressive and potentially fatal liver disease that affects an estimated 250 million people globally, yet remains widely unrecognised, undiagnosed and untreated.
Novo Nordisk is on the right track.
It's a matter of time when AI sector liquidity rotates to quality pharma. As soon as the major IPOs are gone (spacex, anthropic, openai), the AI--bubble cracks will be all over the place. That's when the rotation begins, and NVO, with its current insane undervaluation, will be the first to skyrocket.
And after the liquidity rotation to other sectors like pharma is done, u know what's next: RECESSION.
During the above liquidity rotation, expect NVO to easily reach its 200 WMA (currently sitting at 470dkk/70usd). During the forthcoming recession, expect a double bottom senario for NVO in the 300-200dkk range (depending on the recession's severity) and then, that's where the real journey to the upside begins (at least a double top ATH senario).
May 21st
The UW Medicine Institute for Protein Design and Skape Bio led a new study showing for the first time that AI can be used to create computationally designed proteins to activate or block GPCRs.
Their findings are published May 21 in Nature.
"Protein design takes our understanding of how proteins fold and reverses it — asking if we can envision, with the aid of AI computing, a new protein that sticks to a target in a purpose-built way," said senior author David Baker, director of the UW Medicine Institute for Protein Design .
"This paper showcases how we can do this repeatedly for different GPCRs in ways that capitalize on their dynamic motion to either activate or inactivate them. The result is a generalized approach to targeting biologically critical receptors," added Baker, who is a professor of biochemistry at the University of Washington School of Medicine and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.
Other study collaborators included the BioInnovation Institute, Monash University, the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Johns Hopkins University, the University of North Carolina, Novo Nordisk, Lundbeck, the University of Oregon, the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, and Eurofins DiscoverX.
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AI atlas reveals hidden whole-body-damage caused by obesity
Researchers at Helmholtz Munich, the Ludwig Maximilians University Munich (LMU) and collaborating institutions have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) framework that maps disease-related changes throughout the entire mouse body at cellular resolution. Using the new platform, called MouseMapper, the researchers uncovered widespread inflammation and previously unrecognized damage to facial sensory nerves caused by obesity. Importantly, they also identified corresponding molecular signatures in human tissue, suggesting that key features of obesity-associated nerve damage are conserved across species. The findings are published today (20th of May) in the journal Nature.
The work was supported by the European Research Council (Consolidator Grant CALVARIA to A. Ertürk; grant 949017 to M. Rohm), the German Research Foundation (DFG) under Germany's Excellence Strategy within the Munich Cluster for Systems Neurology (SyNergy, ID 390857198, EXC 2145), DFG SFB 1052 (A9) and TR 296 (P03), the Collaborative Research Centre CRC 1744, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (NATON collaboration, 01KX2121, and HIVacToGC), the Vascular Dementia Research Foundation, the Nomis Heart Atlas Project Grant (Nomis Foundation), the Else-Kröner-Fresenius-Stiftung, the Edith-Haberland-Wagner Stiftung, the Helmut Horten Foundation, the EFSD and Novo Nordisk A/S Programme for Diabetes Research in Europe (to D. Kaltenecker), and the China Scholarship Council (to Y. Chen).
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LONDON/NEW YORK, May 21 (Reuters) - Lower prices for weight-loss pills from Novo Nordisk, and Eli Lilly are prompting patients to switch from compounded medications to branded Wegovy and Foundayo, according to Reuters interviews with nine U.S. doctors.
Prices for the lowest doses of both Novo's oral Wegovy and Lilly's Foundayo tend to be lower than for their injected obesity medicines, and at par with those offered by pharmacies that mix the ingredients themselves and make compounded versions.
As many patients struggle with declining insurance coverage, the lower-priced options have been a boon for the drugmakers, the doctors said.
Denmark's Novo and Indianapolis-based Lilly began selling the oral medications in the U.S. in January and April, respectively, and have boasted of strong demand from new patients.
Still, they have complained about compounded versions, which are allowed by the U.S. FDA in personalized formulations and doses. The Food and Drug Administration has sought to tighten limits after shortages of the branded drugs that allowed compounding to flourish ended.
"I am seeing people are switching from compounds," said Dr. Michael Weintraub, assistant clinical professor of endocrinology at NYU Langone in New York. He said he does not prescribe the compounded drugs but has seen patients who were already on them.
"I have patients increasingly coming to me saying, 'I hear it's not as expensive to get the pharmaceutical-grade branded version, can we switch over?'"
A Lilly spokesperson said the company was "encouraged by the early momentum, growing prescriber interest and intent to prescribe, and by patients choosing authentic, FDA-approved treatments like Foundayo."
Novo said it has expanded access to its GLP‑1 drugs through its NovoCare Pharmacy and retail partnerships, aimed at steering patients toward FDA‑approved treatments over compounded versions.
Whats the bad news?
This goes against NVO logic...
May 21st
The Singapore Court of Appeal has retained an injunction against KBP Bio and its founder, Dr Huang Zhenhua, and ruled that a lawsuit brought by Novo Nordisk will be taken to arbitration.
Last year, Novo Nordisk accused Singapore-based biotech KBP of concealing clinical data ahead of a $1.3 billion licensing agreement between the two companies focused on blood pressure drug candidate ocedurenone, claiming breach of warranty and misrepresentation, and seeking $830 million in damages.
The freezing order on KBP Bio and Huang's assets is intended to avert the risk of funds being moved or hidden before an arbitration judgment, and the appeals court has not issued any conclusions about the merits of the lawsuit, saying: "The judge is not making a finding of dishonesty: that is a matter for the [arbitration] decision-maker at a trial."
In a statement, KBP said in a statement that it is disappointed by the decision to maintain the injunction, but insisted that "Novo Nordisk's allegations of fraud remain unproven. The company is confident that these allegations of fraud will be firmly rejected when the matter is finally adjudicated."
In its complaint, Novo Nordisk contends that KBP knowingly failed to disclose interim data from a phase 2 clinical trial dating back to 2022 that Novo Nordisk claims shows that ocedurenone was unlikely to show efficacy, and also concealed quality and compliance issues at an investigation site that produced "anomalous positive results."
KBP claims the appeals court has "confirmed that Novo Nordisk had access to documents from KBP," including raw, patient-level data, and the company maintains that "provided all material information necessary for Novo Nordisk to make an informed decision to acquire ocedurenone."
At the time the licensing agreement was signed in October 2023, ocedurenone was being tested in the phase 3 CLARION-CKD trial in patients with uncontrolled hypertension and advanced chronic kidney disease (CKD).
Novo Nordisk announced in June 2024 that it was halting CLARION-CKD after an independent data monitoring committee concluded that the trial met the criteria for futility, i.e. it did not meet its primary endpoint of change in systolic blood pressure from baseline to week 12.
The company took a DKK 5.7 billion ($797 million) charge in its interim results as a result, and confirmed it was abandoning the project a few months later.
AIFA stands for Agenzia Italiana del Farmaco, which translates to the Italian Medicines Agency. It is the official federal government body that regulates all human pharmaceuticals in Italy.
AIFA has produced the guide "New drugs for diabetes and obesity: what you need to know for informed use" (also available as a brochure), which provides an updated and comprehensive overview of the safety profile, authorized therapeutic indications, consumption trends, and proper clinical use of these drugs.
Overview of New Therapies
Booming Consumption
Data shows significant growth in these medicines in recent years (2020-2024), both in the NHS reimbursed channel and in private purchases. The overall trend also highlights a progressive concentration on the drugs that have seen the fastest growth. For semaglutide alone, sales increased from approximately 322,000 packages reimbursed by the NHS in 2020 to over 4 million in 2024 (+48.9% in one year). A significant increase was also recorded in private purchases paid for by citizens, with semaglutide packages increasing from approximately 29,700 in 2020 to over 326,000 in 2024 (+78.4% compared to 2023), while tirzepatide, in its first year of marketing, exceeded 30,000 packages.
Furthermore, in 2024, within private purchases, there was a particularly marked increase (+142.8%) in drugs authorised for weight management compared to those without this indication, which could reflect a use more in line with the authorised indications.
Published on: May 18, 2026
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la Repubblica
(Teleborsa) - According to an analysis by international broker Freedom24, ASML, SAP, LVMH, Novo Nordisk, Siemens, TotalEnergies, and UniCredit represent a sort of European "Magnificent Seven ," a basket of large groups that are leaders in their respective sectors and have a strong global presence, capable of competing with US tech giants.
The results for the first quarter of 2026 show that the European champions are not simply surviving : they are shaping structural trends that extend far beyond Europe.
"The American Magnificent Seven are united by a single narrative: AI, platform effects, and a focus on technology. The European 'Seven' have a fundamentally different structure: they are diversified by sector within a single basket. There are common structural characteristics. All seven are undisputed global leaders in their respective sectors. All generate sustainable free cash flows. All operate on a global rather than regional scale. But their investment profiles differ radically. TotalEnergies benefits from the very factors—the oil shock—that are penalizing LVMH, namely the loss of the Middle Eastern market. Novo Nordisk faces price pressure in the largest US market just as UniCredit benefits from the same European cycle of high interest rates that is weighing on other sectors. ASML and SAP are the only two, among the seven, directly involved in the AI infrastructure cycle as suppliers," explains Francesco Bergamini, Representative of Freedom24 in Italy (authorized tied agent), an international online brokerage firm.
Source: Finanza.repubblica.it
Published on: May 18, 2026