NVO
Novo’s latest flex
Novo Nordisk dropped a post hoc analysis from its STEP UP trial subgroup, and Wegovy came out looking pretty spry. In the 55-person slice they analyzed, mean liver fat fell from 8.8% at baseline to 3.1% by week 72.
The number that jumps off the page
The headline stat: of the 26 participants who started with liver fat above 5%, 23 of them — or 88.5% — ended up below that threshold. In plain English, that means a lot of folks moved from “fatty liver risk” territory back into the normal zone.
Why investors should care
That doesn’t automatically turn this into a blockbuster MASH approval story, but it does add more fuel to the semaglutide hype machine. Novo is already studying semaglutide 2.4 mg for MASH, and data like this helps make the case that the drug’s benefits might extend beyond the scale and into metabolic health.
A couple of important caveats, because science loves a fine print footnote:
- this was a post hoc exploratory analysis, not the main trial result
- the analysis covered just 55 participants
- semaglutide 7.2 mg is not being developed for MASH
Big picture: Novo keeps stacking evidence that Wegovy is more than an obesity drug, and the market loves a medicine that can keep finding new jobs.