Novo Nordisk (NVO) stock plunged 21% today after people given the company’s experimental weight-loss drug lost far fewer pounds than expected. Specifically, patients who received Novo’s anti-obesity drug CagriSema saw their weight drop by an average of 20.4% over 68 weeks, compared to the average weight loss of 25% Novo expected from the treatment.

A close-up of a laboratory technician handling a medical device for fertility treatments. However, the company said that if all patients tested had met treatment requirements 100%, their average weight loss would have been 22.7% and 40% of study participants would have lost at least 25% of their weight. Novo reported that only 57% of patients in the trial received the highest dose of CagriSema and said it was “encouraged” by the data, adding that it planned to conduct another trial of the drug by June 2025 to start. Around 3,400 people were involved in the process. CagriSema is taken weekly as an injection and consists of semaglutide and cagrilintide. Semaglutide, which is similar to the hunger-suppressing hormone GLP-1, is also the main ingredient in Novo’s obesity drug Wegovy. The latter treatment is already widely used to combat obesity in the United States. Cagrilintide works similarly to a pancreatic-based hormone called amylin. The average weight loss of patients taking CagriSema was similar to the average weight loss of people taking Eli Lilly’s Zepbound treatment (LLY). Novo Nordisk had hoped that CagriSema would surpass Zeopbound’s performance. LLY stock is up 7.5% in early trading. While we recognize the potential of NVO, we believe some AI stocks are more promising to deliver higher returns, and within a shorter time frame. If you’re looking for an AI stock that has more promise than NVO but trades at less than 5x earnings, check out our report on it cheapest AI stock. READ ALSO The 8 Best Wide Moat Stocks to Buy Now And The 30 most important AI stocks according to BlackRock Disclosure: None. This article was originally published on Insider Monkey.