LONDON/COPENHAGEN, Dec 20(Reuters) - Novo Nordisk

said on Friday its experimental next-generation

obesity drug CagriSema helped overweight patients cut their

weight by 22.7% in a late-stage trial, below the 25% it had

expected.

The lower-than-expected weight loss from the drug candidate

deals a blow to the Danish drugmaker's ambitions for a successor

to its popular Wegovy more powerful than Eli Lilly's ( LLY ) Zepbound.

Investors and analysts had eagerly awaited this data as a

test of Novo's case that it has a strong pipeline of drugs to

follow Wegovy in the fiercely competitive anti-obesity market.