Michael Siluk | UCG | Universal Images Group | Getty Images
Novo Nordisk rose as much as 4% after England’s drug price watchdog recommended the use of its best-selling drug Wegovy to prevent heart attacks and strokes, marking the first GLP-1 backed for this use in the country.
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).
Around 1.2 million people could use the medicine to help protect them against having further heart attacks or strokes, as it is made available for this condition, NICE said in a statement on Wednesday.
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 1.7% in morning trading, paring some earlier gains. The pan-European blue-chip index Stoxx 600 was up 1.8%.
Clinical trials have shown that patients taking a 2.4 mg dose of semaglutide alongside existing cardiovascular medicines were 20% less likely to have a serious cardiovascular event compared to placebo.
Wegovy secured UK approval in 2024 for reducing the risk of major cardiovascular disease in people living with overweight or obesity and heart disease, but access to the medicine was limited to patients paying out-of-pocket if used to treat those conditions.
Novo Nordisk has faced multiple setbacks over the past year as it has lost market share to U.S.-based rival Eli Lilly, whose medicines have resulted in more pronounced weight loss at approved doses. It is also facing significant pricing pressure amid political pressure in its largest market, the U.S., to lower the costs of prescription drugs, as well as exposure to generic competition in India and other markets this year.
So far in 2026, Novo has launched Wegovy in a pill as the first oral GLP-1 for weight loss, and higher-dose Wegovy that is more on par with Lilly’s rival Zepbound, as it’s trying to claw back market share.
Heart and circulatory disease is one of the leading causes of early death and ill health in England, and about 1 in 4 adults in the U.K. is estimated to live with obesity, according to the NHS.
Wegovy will be incorporated for treating cardiovascular disease and alongside NICE’s existing guidance recommending semaglutide for weight management in adults living with obesity or overweight.
“Together, these decisions reflect the growing body of evidence that this class of medicines offers benefits extending beyond weight loss,” NICE said.
“Today’s NICE recommendation for Wegovy is an important step forward for people living with established cardiovascular disease and overweight or obesity,” said Sebnem Avsar Tuna, general manager at Novo Nordisk U.K.
“It means clinicians in England now have access to a further treatment that NICE has found to be cost effective, the first and only GLP 1 receptor agonist proven to reduce the risk of heart attack, stroke or cardiovascular death in this high risk population.”
