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Pfizer on Monday said it might stop developing its experimental obesity and diabetes pill, lotiglipron, resulting from elevated liver enzymes in patients who took the drug once a day in midstage clinical studies.
Those elevated enzymes often indicate damage to cells within the liver, however the pharmaceutical giant said no patients experienced liver-related symptoms or uncomfortable side effects.
Shares of Pfizer were down nearly 5% following the news.
Latest York-based Pfizer said it is going to as an alternative concentrate on its other oral obesity drug, danuglipron, which is in a completely enrolled phase two clinical trial.
That study found that body weight was reduced after patients with Type 2 diabetes took high-dose versions of danuglipron twice a day for 16 weeks, in line with results Pfizer released last month.
The corporate expects to finalize plans for a phase three clinical trial program on danuglipron by the tip of 2023. Pfizer added that additionally it is developing a version of danuglipron that patients take once a day as an alternative of twice.
“We stay up for analyzing the danuglipron Phase 2 results and choosing the dose and titration schedule that can maximize the therapeutic profit and safety and tolerability,” William Sessa, Pfizer’s chief scientific officer of internal medicine, said in a press release.
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla has said that an obesity pill could eventually generate $10 billion every year for the corporate.
Lotiglipron, danuglipron and Novo Nordisk‘s blockbuster weight reduction injections Ozempic and Wegovy are a part of a category of medication called glucagon-like peptide-1 agonists.
They mimic a hormone produced within the gut called GLP-1, which signals to the brain when an individual is full.
The drugs also can help people manage Type 2 diabetes because they encourage insulin release from the pancreas, lowering blood sugar levels.
Oral drugs akin to Pfizer’s danuglipron could offer a bonus over frequent injections. Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly are also developing their very own experimental obesity and diabetes pills.
The brand new class of obesity drugs is piquing public interest and causing a weight reduction industry gold rush. But there’s still uncertainty about their accessibility, and questions remain about how long patients would wish to take the drugs to maintain unwanted weight off.
Some individuals who stop taking the drugs complain a couple of weight rebound that’s difficult to regulate.
Greater than 2 in 5 adults have obesity, in line with the National Institutes of Health. About 1 in 11 adults have severe obesity.
Analysts consider Eli Lilly’s pill has an edge over Pfizer’s danuglipron.
Wells Fargo analyst Mohit Bansal said in a research note Monday that Pfizer’s decision to compete within the oral weight reduction drug space with danuglipron can be difficult given strong data on Eli Lilly’s experimental pill orforglipron.
Obese or obese patients who took orforglipron once a day lost 14.7% of their body weight after 36 weeks, in line with midstage clinical trial results the corporate released Friday.
Bansal added that physicians generally prefer a once-daily pill like orforglipron over the twice-daily danuglipron: “Based on convenience, tolerability, and weight reduction magnitude, orforglipron is probably going the bar to beat.”