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Novo Nordisk rose as much as 4% after England’s drug price regulator recommended the use of its best-selling drug Wegovy to prevent heart attacks and strokes.
Wegovy is mainly a weight loss treatment but it is also approved for reducing the risk of major cardiovascular events in people living with overweight or obesity.
The new recommendation the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), England’s drug price regulator, will significantly expand access to Wegovy on the country’s National Health Service (NHS).
The regulator, which assesses a medicine’s cost-effectiveness, recommended semaglutide, the active ingredient in Wegovy and diabetes treatment Ozempic, as an option for adults who have previously had a heart attack, a stroke, or a serious circulation problem in the legs and who have a body mass index (BMI) of at least 27.
Novo’s Copenhagen-listed shares were last seen up 2% in morning trading, paring some earlier gains. The pan-European blue-chip index Stoxx 600 was up 2.1%.
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