The idea that semaglutide could help treat diabetes, obesity, potentially addiction, and the most common cause of dementia appears too good to be true: An Ozempic-like drug failed in a highly anticipated Alzheimer’s trial, Novo Nordisk announced yesterday.

• Trial participants who took a pill version of the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy showed some improvement in Alzheimer’s biomarkers, but it did nothing to delay the disease’s progression, according to Novo Nordisk.
• The trial was inspired by earlier research suggesting that people with Type 2 diabetes who took semaglutide had lower rates of dementia than groups who took other diabetes drugs or placebos.

Rare L: Novo Nordisk previously referred to this trial as a long-shot “lottery ticket,” so investors weren’t counting on positive results. Still, it’s jarring for pharma bulls to see “semaglutide” and “fails” in the same sentence. Shares of the Danish drugmaker hit a four-year low yesterday, but regained some ground once the disappointment settled.

Hail Mary incomplete

This was one of Novo Nordisk’s last chances of 2025 to reinvigorate its stock, which has nearly halved this year, despite semaglutide’s popularity. The company ousted its eight-year CEO and installed a new one in August to turn its fortune around and claw back some of the market share it lost to Eli Lilly in recent years.

Like Skype vs. Zoom: Though Ozempic had a four-year head start over Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro and Zepbound, Eli Lilly recently overtook Novo Nordisk as the US leader in weight-loss medication. Meanwhile, Novo Nordisk lowered its profit guidance several times this year, saying copycat semaglutide was partially to blame. A hole probably appeared in the drywall of Novo’s headquarters when Eli Lilly became the first pharmaceutical company to hit a $1 trillion market cap last week.

Another challenger emerges: Pfizer is also jockeying for space in weight-loss and outbid Novo Nordisk earlier this month for an obesity-drug startup called Metsera.—ML

Charges against Comey and James dismissed over prosecutor’s appointment. A federal judge tossed the criminal cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, determining that the prosecutor who brought both cases was unlawfully appointed. The ruling is a setback for President Trump, who has publicly called for the prosecution of his critics and appointed Lindsey Halligan—a former insurance lawyer and personal attorney for Trump with no experience as a prosecutor—as interim US Attorney after another lawyer refused to file the case against Comey. However, both cases were dismissed without prejudice, which means they could be refiled.

After speaking to Xi, Trump says he’ll go to China. The two world leaders had what President Trump described as “a very good telephone call” yesterday, after which Trump said he had accepted Chinese President Xi Jinping’s invitation to visit China in April and reciprocated with an invitation for a state visit later. Xi is said to have initiated the call in an unusual diplomatic overture that comes after the US and China reached an understanding on tariffs last month. The two discussed Taiwan and Ukraine, both sensitive topics, as well as trade, including the purchase of US soybeans.

White House says Trump “remains hopeful and optimistic” on Ukraine peace deal. After Ukrainian negotiators returned home from Geneva having agreed to modify a US plan to end the war between Russia and Ukraine, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said he would discuss “sensitive issues” with President Trump. The president’s original proposal struck Ukraine and its European allies as fulfilling a Russian wish list, according to Reuters. White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said Trump was optimistic and said there are “just a couple points of disagreement.” But it was not clear whether Russia would accept an updated version.—AR

Tech giants are issuing IOUs as frantically as that classmate who was always asking everyone to spot him a dollar for vending machine snacks—and it’s dampening the prices of their bonds.

The bond market is currently dominated by companies raising cash for data centers and shiny new AI models. That deluge of AI debt has caused Big Tech’s bonds to trade at the highest yields compared to safer bonds since President Trump introduced sweeping tariffs in April.

Buy bonds, AI bonds

Bonds are becoming a larger part of AI borrowing and vice versa:

• AI companies surpassed banks as the largest high-grade bond issuers in the US, accounting for 14% of bond debt this year, according to JPMorgan.
• So-called AI hyperscalers like Amazon, Meta, Alphabet, and Oracle issued $90 billion in investment-grade bonds since the start of September, more than in the preceding 40 months, Dealogic data cited by the Wall Street Journal shows.

Investors in some cases seem anxious about the debt’s safety. The price of default insurance for Oracle’s bonds, for instance, tripled in the past month. But many of the AI-financing bonds are being sold by cash-flush tech behemoths with stronger credit ratings than Oracle.

Looking ahead: Morgan Stanley analysts recently said that if the AI borrowing fest continues past 2025, it could affect the bond market as a whole.—SK

If you’re traveling for Thanksgiving, the best advice we can offer you today is that you should’ve left yesterday. A record 81.8 million people are expected to traverse at least 50 miles within the US between today and Dec. 1, according to AAA, straining all modes of transportation.

The FAA is bracing for its busiest Thanksgiving week in 15 years, with more than 360,000 flights scheduled between yesterday and next Tuesday. The TSA anticipates screening 17.8 million people, many of whom will be dressed comfortably, despite Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s attempt at pajama-shaming flyers last week.

Other options may be equally hectic, per AAA:

• About 73.2 million people will be behind the wheel, a 1.8% increase over last year. According to the transportation analytics firm Inrix, the worst times to hit the road in major metro areas are in the afternoon today and tomorrow.
• The number of bus, train, and cruise-goers is predicted to climb 8.5% compared to last year.

More bad news: Most of the US will likely get some sort of troubling weather over the next week, including severe storms across the South, and snow in the Northern Rockies that could impact road safety.—DL

It seems pop culture can’t quit smoking. Despite years of taboo, cigarettes are being embraced by celebrities and pop singers, and have recently shown up more in movies, the Wall Street Journal reports:

• Around half of the films released last year featured cigarettes or other tobacco products, up from just 10% the year before, according to public health nonprofit Truth Initiative and the University of Chicago’s NORC research organization.
• That’s in spite of major tobacco companies like Altria and Reynolds saying they actively send cease-and-desist letters to keep their products off screens.

Although smoking rates in the US are currently at their lowest in ~80 years, public health advocates—many of whom have worked tirelessly for decades to make smoking less cool—find the trend alarming. They’ve got reason to: The CDC found in 2019 that young people “heavily exposed to onscreen smoking imagery” are more likely to start smoking than those with minimal exposure. Federal officials have linked smoking to one in three cancer deaths in the US and 30+ other health concerns.—AR