Amgen remains confident in its obesity asset MariTide, for which it has launched a broad Phase III program.
As Novo Nordisk and Pfizer fight over a promising GLP-1 pipeline at Metsera, Amgen is staying the course on its antibody-peptide conjugate MariTide, which the company is taking into late-stage development for obesity and adjacent conditions.
The pharma is set to release Phase II data for weight loss and type 2 diabetes for MariTide in the fourth quarter, the company said during its third-quarter earnings call Tuesday.
For BMO Capital Markets, these upcoming midstage readouts “could provide more qualitative understanding of the asset.” MariTide in November last year disappointed investors when it delivered underwhelming weight-loss figures complicated by safety concerns.
“By testing patients in once monthly and longer dosing intervals, we believe investors will start to get a better sense of what Maritide could achieve in a maintenance setting – an area in which we think the product could provide the most value if it does carve a niche in obesity,” the BMO analysts added.
“It is interesting that there’s a bidding war between two companies for a GLP-1,” Murdo Gordon, Amgen’s executive vice president of Global Commercial Operations, said in an investor call on Tuesday. That high-profile tug-of-war being between Pfizer and Novo Nordisk over obesity biotech Metsera—a fight that has already drawn a $10 billion bid from one party and spawned at least two lawsuits from the other.
“MariTide is a true differentiation compared to what is available in the market,” Gordon continued. “We hope to go into this market not just to reduce the weight of patients who struggle with obesity, but also to help deliver on the medical benefit of managing that weight.”
Unlike the majority of the GLP-1 therapies—such as Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide and even Metsera’s MET-097i, which are peptides—MariTide is a bispecific peptide-antibody conjugate that, according to Amgen, can lead to stronger and more durable effects.
In its news release on Tuesday, Amgen discussed the launch of a broad Phase III program for MariTide not just in chronic weight management but also for heart failure and other adverse cardiovascular outcomes, as well as obstructive sleep apnea.
“We believe strongly that we have a differentiated approach to this market than the competitors that are in the space presently,” CEO Robert Bradway told investors, additionally insisting that the pharma’s programs are also “different from what we see others advancing in their portfolios.”
Aside from MariTide, Amgen’s obesity push also includes the injectable AMG 513, though not much is known about the asset. Its development had been put on a hold, which was subsequently released by the FDA. On Tuesday, the pharma announced that a Phase I obesity study for AMG 513 is enrolling patients.
In the third quarter, Amgen’s revenue increased 12% year-on-year to hit $9.6 billion—beating analyst estimates by 7%. The osteoporosis drug Prolia scored big, outpacing consensus by 22% to bring in $1.1 billion in the quarter. Also delivering a surprisingly strong Q3 was the cholesterol drug Repatha, which surged 40% year-on-year despite being 10 years into its life cycle.
For the entire year, Amgen expects its revenues to land between $35.8 billion to $36.6 billion.
