Weight loss
While participants on a lower dose of Wave Life Sciences’ RNA therapy lost 5.3% total fat at the six-month mark, those receiving the higher dose saw a less than 1% drop at three months.
This year’s catalysts in the space include a near-term FDA decision on Eli Lilly’s oral challenger to the new Wegovy pill. Looking further ahead, Novo Nordisk is expecting more clinical data for next-gen weight loss asset CagriSema, which recently lost a head-to-head battle with Lilly’s Zepbound.
Aardvark Therapeutics’ obesity asset is based on its lead molecule, which in February was linked to reversible heart safety signals in a healthy volunteer study.
With the approval of Wegovy HD, Novo Nordisk joins Johnson & Johnson, Boehringer Ingelheim and USAntibiotics as beneficiaries of the FDA’s Commissioner’s National Priority Voucher program, which aims to review products that align with certain national priorities in less than two months.
Eli Lilly’s retatrutide could present a “differentiated option” for patients with type 2 diabetes who want to control their blood sugar and achieve maximal weight loss, according to analysts at BMO Capital Markets.
Heath Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s efforts to overhaul vaccine policy are likely illegal, a Massachusetts District Court Judge ruled; Structure’s GLP-1 weight loss pill succeeds in Phase 2 while Rhythm’s Phase 3 basket trial fails to find the beat; Eli Lilly warns of potential safety risks of taking compounded tirzepatide, and Novo Nordisk is hit with an FDA warning letter regarding adverse events potentially linked to Ozempic.
The Phase 3 EMANATE study is a basket trial looking at the efficacy of Rhythm Pharmaceuticals’ injectable obesity drug across four types of obesities driven by specific genetic mutations.
Structure Therapeutics’ oral obesity drug elicited a placebo-adjusted weight loss of 16.3% at 44 weeks in a Phase 2 trial. The biotech is planning to launch a late-stage program for the drug later this year.
Combining tirzepatide with vitamin B12, a common additive in compounded versions of the drug, yields an impurity that could alter the drug’s toxicity profile and pose safety risks to patients, the company said in an open letter.
Orforglipron, Eli Lilly’s oral obesity drug, is under FDA review with a decision expected in April. The pharma has also filed for marketing authorization for the pill in China.
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