By Maggie Fick and Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen

LONDON/COPENHAGEN (Reuters) -Novo Nordisk’s closely-watched Alzehimer’s trials – which failed on Monday to show it can slow the disease’s progression – were always a long-shot, although they had offered the drugmaker a potential win after a year of sliding shares and slowing sales.

Analysts and investors said the data setback was a blow to the embattled Danish drugmaker, but added that a near 10% drop in its share price, which wiped around $20 billion off its market value, was sentiment driven and did not alter the outlook.

Novo had repeatedly cast the Alzheimer’s studies as high-risk, with a senior executive two months ago describing them as a “lottery ticket”, but had also stoked hopes that it could open a vast new market for GLP-1 medicines

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