Obesity
With PN-477, Protagonist is directly going up against Eli Lilly, which is advancing retatrutide, also a triple-G agonist, in a Phase II trial.
Altimmune’s pemvidutide failed to significantly improve fibrosis in MASH patients in a Phase IIb study. The biotech crashed 53% in the aftermath of the readout.
In the race to make the most tolerable obesity drug, there seems to be no clear winner—at least not according to analysts parsing the data presented at the American Diabetes Association annual meeting this week.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testified in front of largely combative congresspeople on vaccine policy, his MAHA report and more; the mass leadership exodus at the FDA continues as CDER and CBER shed key staff; Kennedy’s revamped CDC vaccine advisors convene for their first meeting; Novo and Lilly present new data at the American Diabetes Association’s annual meeting; and BioSpace recaps BIO2025.
Eli Lilly’s bimagrumab led to weight loss that was due almost entirely to fat reduction when combined with semaglutide, marketed by rival Novo Nordisk as Wegovy. BMO Capital Markets called the data “impressive” while raising concerns about the antibody’s safety profile.
While Eli Lilly brushed off concerns about gastrointestinal side effects for oral weight loss candidate orforglipron, analysts from William Blair worried that adverse events are not tapering off as expected.
After consistently failing to meet investor expectations, Novo Nordisk touted a safety profile for CagriSema in line with the GLP1-RA class, while reporting mid-stage data for its GLP1- and amylin-targeting drug amycretin that raised dosing questions.
Analysts at William Blair say dapiglutide’s 11.6% weight reduction at 28 weeks could still be better, given that Zealand’s study predominantly included men and enrolled patients with lower BMI at baseline.
In combination with Eli Lilly’s tirzepatide, marketed as Zepbound for obesity, Scholar Rock’s monolonal antibody helped patients lose the same amount of weight as patients on tirzepatide alone while preserving more muscle mass.
Another patient has died from acute liver failure after receiving Sarepta’s gene therapy for DMD ; After a quiet start to the year, M&A is back with one deal for a gene editing biotech reinvigorating that sector; and RFK Jr. installs a suite of new vaccine board members who share his skeptical views on vaccines.
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