Weight loss
Versant Ventures continues to invest in the increasingly competitive obesity space, this time launching Helicore with $65 million and a GIP-targeting asset intended to induce higher-quality weight loss.
Patients taking Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy plus Veru’s enobosarm saw 71% lower lean mass loss than those who were taking Wegovy alone but investors await more data.
The readout comes on the heels of CagriSema’s disappointing Phase III performance, where it missed Novo’s projection of 25% weight reduction.
Biopharma executives shared their thoughts on the potential impacts of the new administration; Annalee Armstrong recaps JPM and her talks with Biogen, Gilead, Novavax and more; Wegovy’s higher dose induces more weight loss; AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo’s Dato-DXd scores its first FDA approval.
The data suggest the high dose nearly closes the efficacy gap with Zepbound.
JPM25 is in full swing as several pharma powerhouses—including Merck, Lilly and Amgen—detail their strategies for growth in the coming year.
Obesity continues to grab attention at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco, with both Pfizer and Kailera Therapeutics outlining their plans in the space moving forward.
Metsera will use its IPO proceeds to fund the Phase III development of its injectable, ultra-long-acting GLP-1 therapy MET-097i, which last week achieved 11.3% weight loss in a Phase IIa study.
The company’s lead asset is a potentially first-in-class oral GLP-1 receptor agonist that has the potential to be dosed weekly, which according to CEO Khurem Farooq can help improve accessibility and affordability.
According to BMO Capital Markets, Medicare coverage of Lilly’s Zepbound opens the door to using secondary indications to secure CMS coverage for obesity drugs.
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