Search Results

While GLP-1 medicines have become synonymous with weight loss, at least one expert thinks amylin would have been the go-to target if biopharma had been focused on the blockbuster indication 10 years ago. A new wave of therapies is now exploring this potentially gentler mechanism.

EloraTZP—a combination of an amylin asset and Eli Lilly’s approved obesity drug Zepbound—made a clean sweep of the primary and secondary endpoints in a mid-stage trial of adults with obesity and type 2 diabetes, setting up the launch of a Phase 3 trial before the end of the year.

Structure Therapeutics’ oral GLP-1 candidate aleniglipron showed 72-week efficacy “in line” with Novo Nordisk’s oral Wegovy, BMO Capital Markets wrote in a note to investors. Meanwhile, Structure’s amylin and calcitonin receptor agonist ACCG-2671 showed “impressive” target engagement in a Phase 1 trial of healthy volunteers, according to Leerink Partners.

Amylin drugs have become the next big thing in obesity. Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks, understandably, thinks his rivals don’t have a chance for one key reason.

Roche and Zealand Pharma announced last month that their amylin analog petrelintide elicited a 9% placebo-controlled weight reduction at 42 weeks—falling far below analyst and investor expectations.

Analysts and investors were unimpressed by Phase 2 data posted in the spring showing that an amylin analog developed by Roche and partner Zealand Pharma elicited 9% weight loss, less than Eli Lilly’s rival candidate. Executives from both companies told BioSpace that premium weight loss is not the point of petrelintide.

AbbVie’s foray into the obesity space is successful so far, analysts agree, as amylin analog ABBV-295 elicited as much as 9.73% weight loss at 13 weeks in the multiple ascending dose portion of a Phase 1 trial.