The American Diabetes Association quickly realized this week that sharing confidential, market-moving data with hundreds of physicians is not a good idea.
On Monday, the ADA shared new data on Novo Nordisk A/S's blockbuster diabetes treatment Victoza with a packed convention hall in New Orleans. The data was shared at the convention more than an hour before its official release to the public, according to Bloomberg.
Although attendees were warned not to share the information, they immediately began posting pictures of charts, including slides that showed Victoza's success in reducing deaths, to Twitter. The slides showed the drug cut heart attacks and strokes by 13 percent and improved survival — results that fell short of investors' expectations.
The ADA pleaded with those who posted the information to Twitter to take it down immediately, saying the unpublished data is the intellectual property of the presenters. However, it was too little too late. Many of tweets had already been shared by others, including one Twitter user who retweeted the images to his more than 18,000 followers, according to the report.
Confirming how important the information was to the market, Novo's shares experienced their biggest one-day drop since February on Tuesday. The decline represented about a $7.77 billion decline in market value.
The ADA and Novo didn't respond to Bloomberg's requests for comments.
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