By Jesus Calero and Elviira Luoma

(Reuters) -Shares in Novo Nordisk rose as much as 14% on Thursday after trial data from Eli Lilly’s experimental weight-loss pill fell short of expectations, boosting investor confidence in the Danish drugmaker’s market-leading obesity treatment.

The company later pared some gains and were trading up 9% at 1240GMT.

The market had anticipated Eli Lilly’s orforglipron pill to become a strong competitor to Novo’s weight-loss drugs, Kepler Cheuvreux analyst David Evans said in an emailed comment.

However, with Thursday’s results falling short of those expectations, Evans said investors were likely to rethink the competitive outlook in the GLP-1 obesity drug market, a shift that favours Novo’s oral semaglutide.

Eli Lilly shares were down 7.8% premarket at

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