Hot topic: The race for the next obesity blockbuster
As anyone who has been following the weight loss wars knows, today’s treatments are far from perfect.
They might be mega blockbusters, the likes of which have rarely been seen before in pharma, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be improved upon.
They have to be injected – weekly. They often cause nausea. And they lead to a worrying loss of lean muscle mass.
Studies show that 15 to 60 per cent of the weight lost is due to the loss of lean muscle mass. If an individual subsequently gains weight, upon coming off the drugs, they usually don’t regain the muscle they have lost – which could be seriously detrimental to their long-term health.
The race is therefore on to bring to market the next generation of weight loss drugs. And what a race it is!
Last month, Pfizer won an intense bidding war against Novo Nordisk to purchase Metsera – paying a cool $10 billion for the biotech. Metsera’s key asset, MET-0971i, is potentially a best-in-class ultra-long acting GLP-1 that should only need to be injected monthly. It also appears to be more tolerable in terms of nausea and other GI problems.
But that is only the start. A host of biotechs from every corner of the planet now have next-gen obesity drugs in development.
A number of them have just made public data.
Wave Life Sciences has published interim Phase I data for its siRNA-based drug WVE-007 demonstrating a 9.4% reduction in visceral fat three months after a single dose. Notably, there was also a 3.2% increase in lean mass – appearing to show that you can get significant weight loss, without concurrent loss of muscle.
Wave’s share price has almost tripled since the data was put out on Monday morning – and the NASDAQ listed company, based in Cambridge, MA, is now worth more than $3.5 billion.
San Francisco’s Structure Therapeutics, meanwhile, saw its share price double after it put out positive data the same day for its once-daily GLP-1 treatment aleniglipron. The pill led to a 11.3% drop in weight after 36 weeks in the Phase 2b placebo-controlled trial.
There are plenty of others snapping at their heels. Swedish biotech Atrogi, for instance, is developing ATR-258, which mimics the effect of exercise – promising not only to cut a person’s body fat but also to improve their muscle tone and mass.
Its founder and Chief Scientific Officer, Professor Tore Bengtsson, says: “This pill can actively reshape body composition – reducing fat while preserving muscle mass – all without requiring dietary restriction. That’s an unprecedented therapeutic profile.”
The firm has already completed a Phase 1 study which showed ATR-258 to be safe and well tolerated. Now Atrogi is planning larger Phase 2 trails to test its efficacy, both on its own and in combination with an existing GLP-1.
Chinese firms are also hard at work on new obesity drugs. For example, in September Beijing-based QL Biopharm shared Phase 2 data on its once-a-month GLP-1 candidate zovaglutide. Among the results, those on a 160mg monthly dose lost 13.8% of their weight after 24 weeks – which QL claimed was superior to 24-week phase 3 data on Mounjaro and Wegovy, although such cross-trial comparisons can raise eyebrows.
UK biotechs are heavily into this race too. It’s worth noting that the science behind Metsera’s MET-0971i was developed at University College, London, with Metsera buying UCL spin-out Zihipp in 2023 for an undisclosed amount. UCL and investor IP Group will share milestone payments and future royalties.
