Pavlo Gonchar | Rocket | Getty Images
Pfizer said Monday it would happen stop developing his experimental obesity and diabetes pill, lotiglipronedue to elevated liver enzymes in patients taking the drug once daily during mid-stage clinical trials.
That elevated enzymes often indicate damage to cells in the liver, but the pharmaceutical giant said no patient experienced any liver-related symptoms or side effects.
Shares of Pfizer fell nearly 5% following the news.
New York-based Pfizer said it will instead focus on its other oral obesity drug, danuglipron, which is in a fully enrolled phase two clinical trial.
That study found that body weight decreased after patients with type 2 diabetes took a high dose of danugliprone twice a day for 16 weeks, according to results published last month by Pfizer.
The company expects to finalize plans for a phase three clinical trial program with danugliprone by the end of 2023. Pfizer added that it is also developing a version of danugliprone that patients take once a day instead of twice.
“We look forward to analyzing danugliprone phase 2 results and selecting the dose and titration schedule that maximizes therapeutic benefit, safety and tolerability,” said William Sessa, Pfizer’s Chief Scientific Officer of Internal Medicine, in a press release. .
Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer, has said an obesity pill could eventually bring in $10 billion for the company each year.
lotiglipron, danuglipron and Novo NordiskOzempic and Wegovy’s blockbuster weight loss injections are part of a class of drugs called glucagon-like peptide-1 agonists.
They mimic a hormone produced in the gut called GLP-1, which sends a signal to the brain when a person is full.
The drugs can also help people manage type 2 diabetes because they stimulate the release of insulin from the pancreas, which lowers blood sugar levels.
Oral medications such as Pfizer’s danuglipron may offer an advantage over frequent injections. Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly are also developing their own experimental obesity and diabetes pills.
The new class of obesity drugs is sparking public interest and sparking a gold rush in the weight loss industry. But there is still uncertainty about their accessibility, and questions remain about how long patients would need the drugs to keep unwanted weight off.
Some people who stop taking the drugs complain of a weight rebound that is difficult to control.
More than 2 in 5 adults are obese, according to the National Health Institutes. About 1 in 11 adults is severely obese.
Analysts think Eli Lilly’s pill has an edge over Pfizer’s danugliprone.
Wells Fargo analyst Mohit Bansal said in a research note Monday that Pfizer’s decision to compete in oral weight loss drugs with danugliprone will be challenging given the strong data on Eli Lilly’s experimental pill, or forglipron.
Overweight or obese patients who took orforglipron once a day lost 14.7% of their body weight after 36 weeks, according to mid-stage clinical trial results the company released Friday.
Bansal added that doctors generally prefer a once-daily pill like orforglipron to the twice-daily danuglipron: “Based on convenience, tolerability and weight loss, orforglipron is probably the bar to beat.”