Health
Pfizer’s once-daily weight-loss pill targets the lucrative anti-obesity drug market
Topline
Pfizer said Thursday it is moving forward with a once-daily weight-loss pill, danugliprone, after getting promising data from an early-stage trial, a milestone for the pharmaceutical giant as it hopes to enter the lucrative obesity drug market and compete with the popular weight loss. injections of Wegovy and Zepbound.
Pfizer said it was making progress with the oral weight-loss pill danugliprone.
Key facts
Pfizer said it evaluated several once-daily formulations of danugliprone and selected the preferred formulation to advance to interim testing.
The pharmaceutical giant said it had seen “encouraging” data from an ongoing early-stage trial and had identified the candidate with “the most favorable profile.”
According to a entry In a federal database of clinical trials, Pfizer tested four different formulations of the once-daily pill in the early phase of a trial involving 20 people, all healthy adults 18 and older.
The New York-based drugmaker said it will determine the optimal dose for the pill in the second half of 2024 and study several different options.
“We believe that a once-daily formulation has the potential to have a competitive profile in the oral GLP-1 space,” said Pfizer’s Chief Scientific Officer and President of Research and Development, Mikael Dolsten.
Shares of Pfizer rose nearly 2% in premarket trading after the announcement.
How long will it take for Pfizer’s slimming pill to hit the market?
Danugliprone is still undergoing early-stage clinical trials and even in the best-case scenario for the drugmaker, it will still be many years before the pill reaches consumers. If the drug succeeds in mid-stage trials, which is far from guaranteed, Pfizer must next undertake late-stage trials, which can take a long time and also have no guarantees of success. If successful, Pfizer would need to obtain regulatory approval for the drug, which takes time and is not guaranteed. Pfizer has previously struggled with a twice-daily version of the drug Discontinued development of the pill after patients had difficulty tolerating side effects during mid-stage clinical trials. The side effects of the pill were usually mild gastrointestinal complaints such as nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, but the frequencies were high and although patients successfully lost weight, many stopped taking the pill as a result.
Important background
The weight-loss drug market is dominated by Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, pharmaceutical titans whose diabetes and obesity shots Ozempic, Wegovy, Zepbound and Mounjaro are in high demand (and often in limited supply) worldwide. Both belong to a class of drugs known as Glucagon-like peptide receptor agonists, or GLP-1s, which mimic the action of a gut hormone involved in regulating appetite and blood sugar levels. Pfizer’s experimental drug is also a GLP-1 drug. Considering the time it takes to bring a drug to market, the duo will likely rule the lucrative sector for the foreseeable future. Other companies such as Pfizer, Amgen, Roche, Viking Therapeutics and Zealand Pharma are rushing to catch up and launch their own weight-loss drugs, which analysts estimate will be worth $100,000 by the end of the decade. could have more than $100 billion. Although Lilly and Novo enjoy a significant first mover advantage with tirzepatide and semaglutide, the generic name for Mounjaro and Zepbound and Ozempic and Wegovy, the sheer size of the market makes it an attractive target for pharmaceutical companies, especially if they can beat the duo’s products . . Competitors could offer faster and more significant weight loss – Zepbound appears to best Wegovy in this regard – helping patients better maintain muscle while still losing fat or offering other health benefits such as treating cardiovascular problems, sleep apnea or kidney disease. Because Wegovy and Zepbound are both currently administered via weekly injections, developing more accessible and needle-free methods of taking the drugs is a clear market opportunity that both established and hopeful newcomers are pursuing.
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