Health Care Up Slightly as Pfizer Rallies on Weight-Drug Hopes -- Health Care Roundup

Health-care companies rose slightly amid more excitement about a new class of weight drugs.

Shares of Pfizer rose by more than 5% for one of the Big Pharma company's biggest gains in recent years after the Journal of the American Medical Association reported its diabetes drug, danuglipron, caused comparable weight loss for patients in a clinical trial to that associated with Danish rival Novo Nordisk's Ozempic injection.

Novo Nordisk has risen roughly 60% in the last year because of excitement about its Ozempic product, and Eli Lilly, another player in the emerging category of weight-loss drugs, has risen by a similarly marked increment. Shares of Pfizer are down sharply in the last 12 months.

Swiss biotech company VectivBio rose by 36% after gastrointestinal drugmaker Ironwood Pharmaceuticals agreed to buy its rival at a substantial premium.

Write to Rob Curran at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

05-22-23 1750ET