Novo Nordisk on Friday announced early-stage trial results for its amycretin obesity drug for subcutaneous injection, saying people with obesity or overweight treated with the drug achieved a 22% weight loss after 36 weeks.
Shares jumped on the release and traded up 7% at 1040 GMT.
Amycretin targets the same gut hormone that Wegovy mimics, known as GLP-1, but also a pancreas hormone called amylin that affects hunger.
"The results seen in the trial support the weight lowering potential of this novel unimolecular GLP-1 and amylin receptor agonist, amycretin, that we have previously seen with the oral formulation," Novo Nordisk's head of development Martin Lange said in a statement.
Novo is also developing amycretin as a weight-loss pill, which helped obese participants lose 13.1% of their weight after 12 weeks of treatment in an early-stage study.
The company said in September it plans to decide on further studies for amycretin after data from the trial with the subcutaneous version.