Weight loss
Amgen believes that it can transcend the expected tradeoff between convenience and efficacy, anticipating that its investigational obesity drug MariTide will continue to provide competitive weight loss even at monthly or longer schedules.
Mounjaro and Zepbound combined for $11.7 billion in the fourth quarter, which beat analyst consensus of $10.6 billion.
Pfizer announces the first data from its Metsera-acquired pipeline just ahead of its earnings call, where analysts pressed execs for more details; Merck and Roche also released Q4 and full year earnings, with Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk and others reporting Wednesday; REGENXBIO hits a regulatory snag ahead of its upcoming PDUFA; more.
Novo Nordisk beat analyst expectations for the fourth quarter, but the result was overshadowed by softened expectations for this year.
Analysts parsed the limited data available for Pfizer’s obesity candidate on the pharma’s fourth-quarter earnings call Tuesday, looking for any nugget of additional context.
With data from a mid-stage trial showing weight loss of up to 12.3% at 28 weeks in patients treated with PF’3944, “Pfizer is moving full speed into obesity clinical development,” BMO Capital Markets said Tuesday.
While CagriSema bested Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy on blood sugar control in a late-stage trial, the next-gen weight loss drug still has not met the pharma’s 25% weight loss goal.
Roche’s obesity candidate achieves 22.5% weight loss in Phase II; Moderna pulls the plug on late-stage vaccine trials as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy’s anti-vaccine policies and rhetoric continues; and embattled gene therapy maker Sarepta announces new data in Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
Roche said the Phase II results help build the case for advancing CT-388 into late-stage testing, which is set to get underway this quarter.
The obesity market and Most Favored Nation drug pricing were among the topics de jour at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference last week, while smaller biotechs sought to assure investors that their regulatory ducks are in a row; Novo Nordisk’s oral obesity pill got off to a hot start while the FDA delayed a decision on Eli Lilly’s investigational offering; and SpyGlass Pharma and AgomAb Therapeutics join the 2026 IPO club.
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