Novo Nordisk said patients taking a bigger dose of its blockbuster obesity drug lost more weight than those on a lower dose, without experiencing an increase in side-effects.

Novo Nordisk said a higher dose of its drug Wegovy led to greater weight loss in patients during a late-stage trial, but the results fell short of the weight loss achieved with Eli Lilly's rival drug Zepbound,

A high dose of Novo Nordisk’s obesity drug Wegovy led patients to lose substantial weight in a clinical trial, but still less than what’s been seen with Zepbound.

Wegovy, the weight-loss brand of semaglutide, has a recommended maintenance dose of 2.4 mg. Novo ran the Phase III STEP UP trial to evaluate the effect of increasing the maximum dose to 7.2 mg. The trial randomized 1,407 adults with obesity, but not diabetes, to receive either 7.2 mg or 2.4 mg of semaglutide or placebo.

A trial exploring the use of a higher dose of Novo Nordisk's GLP-1 agonist semaglutide has shown that patients with obesity who were taking the drug were able to shed more than a fifth of their body weight.

In the ongoing quest to expand semaglutide’s clinical pedigree and cement the GLP-1's market position, Novo Nordisk is rolling out new data on a higher-dose injection in obesity. | In the phase 3b STEP UP study,

Novo Nordisk's STEP UP trial shows semaglutide 7.2 mg delivers superior weight loss and safety compared to lower doses and placebo over 72 weeks.

People who stayed on a 7.2 milligram weekly dose of semaglutide lost around 20% of their body weight over 72 weeks.

Shares of Novo Nordisk (NYSE:NVO) fell 2% following the announcement of results from its STEP UP obesity trial, which showed that Semaglutide 7.2 mg achieved a 20.7% weight loss in participants, and 18.