Weight-loss drug prospects increase, anticipating better results and costs

New data on drugs for slim down that could compete with Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy, raise expectations that there will soon be more choice, and possibly lower prices, in an estimated $100 billion market, doctors and pharmaceutical executives said.

Drug manufacturers are intensifying their research and looking for new formulas that can be offered as pills, options for further weight loss, or drugs that reduce fat while maintaining muscle.

“There really has been an explosion of innovationsaid the doctor Robert Gabbayscientific director of the American Diabetes Association (ADA)which receives funding from both Novo and Eli Lilly and Co and has just wrapped up its annual meeting in San Diego.

“If there are multiple (treatments) on the market, that will lead to some level of competition and more access”.

More than 40% of Americans are obese, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and there is strong demand for treatments to reduce body weight and maintain weight loss.

Wegovy and Mounjaroof lillyweekly injections that sell for more than $1,000 a month in the United States, were originally developed for type 2 diabetes and are part of a class of obesity drugs.

Drugs known as incretins were designed to mimic the action of the hormone GLP-1, which helps regulate blood sugar, slow the rate of stomach emptying and reduce appetite.

Wegovy was approved for obesity in 2021 after studies showed it resulted in 15% weight loss in 68 weeks, while Mounjaro, which demonstrated more than 22% weight loss in 72 weeks, is expected to be authorized at the end of this year.

At the ADA conference, Novo presented data from a late-stage trial of a high-dose oral version of Wegovy showing similar weight loss results to the injection when used in conjunction with diet and physical activity, versus 2.4% of a placebo.

“They are all options” it states Mico Guevarramedical director of new. “What are the needs and goals of your patient? Let’s pick something that works for you”.

lilly said the highest dose of its experimental pill orforglippron achieved 14.7% weight loss after 36 weeks in a mid-phase trial with overweight or obese people.

“We are also thinking about global needs and those patients who just don’t want an injectablesaid Lilly senior vice president Jeff Emmick.

new milestones

lilly also presented data from a mid-phase trial of its new generation injectable drug “triple g” retatrutide, which activates receptors for three hormones, which was shown to cause an average weight loss of up to 24.2% after 48 weeks.

A drug capable of achieving a 25% weight loss would represent a new milestone in treatment and would bring patients closer to the results obtained with invasive bariatric surgery.

“One of the things we know about bariatric surgery is that there is a close relationship between this weight loss and the improvement of a series of comorbidities: cardiovascular outcomes, sleep apnea“, said emmickof lilly.

Lilly’s phase 3 trial program for retatrutide will include measurement of the drug’s impact on issues such as sleep apnea and arthritis.

Pfizer said Monday it had stopped work on lotiglipron, an experimental once-daily anti-obesity drug, after liver safety problems were noted in clinical studies. The company said it would further develop its twice-daily weight-loss drug candidate.

Structure Therapeutics is developing oral obesity drugs that it says are easier to manufacture than current injectables. “There is an opportunity to improve prices. Accessibility is very important to ussaid Ray Stevens, Structure’s chief executive.

Zealand Pharma and boehringer ingelheim claimed their experimental obesity treatment reduced body weight by about 19% in a mid-phase trial in participants who had reached the target dose for the injectable drug.

Versanis Organicpartly owned by Novartis, is working on a drug called bimagrumab, designed to block proteins from binding to receptors thought to inhibit muscle growth and promote fat storage.

“We define quality of weight loss as the percentage of weight loss attributed to fat loss”, said the scientific director of versanis, Lloyd Klickstein.

“With diets, bariatric surgery, incretin drugs, or other weight-loss medications, two-thirds to three-fourths of weight loss is fat, but one-fourth to one-third is lean”.

Drug manufacturers anticipate that data from upcoming trials designed to show that weight loss with GLP-1 drugs has a significant impact on cardiovascular outcomes will help convince health insurers to relax any reimbursement restrictions.

So far, however, there aren’t many differences between the GLP-1 drugs, a situation that may help insurers when seeking price discounts in exchange for health plan coverage.

There it is “where we have the opportunity to use our negotiations to drive cost reduction, because we need it to be a competitive category“, he claimed Sree Chaguturumedical director of CVS Healthowner of the health insurer Aetna.

Source: Reuters