Zealand, Boehringer's drug meets main weight-loss goal in mid-stage
trial
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[May 10, 2023]
By Ludwig Burger
FRANKFURT (Reuters) -Zealand Pharma and partner Boehringer Ingelheim
said their experimental obesity drug achieved up to 14.9% weight loss
after 46 weeks in a mid-stage trial, adding a potential contestant to
the fast growing obesity drug market.
In a statement on Wednesday, the partners said that the Phase II
dose-finding trial met its primary endpoint of weight loss, the Danish
company added.
A spokesperson for unlisted Boehringer said that the partners are in
discussion with regulators about a potential follow-up trial in the
third and last phase of testing that is typically required for approval.
The enormous demand for weight-loss treatments such as Novo Nordisk’s
Wegovy, or potentially Eli Lilly's Mounjaro, could support as many as 10
competing products with annual sales reaching up to $100 billion within
a decade, mostly in the United States, industry executives and analysts
said.
Zealand shares were little changed at 0750 GMT after jumping as much as
3.3% after the open.
Its drug, for now going by the name of BI 456906, is a weekly injection
under the skin like Mounjaro and Wegovy as well as like Novo's
lower-dose diabetes drug Ozempic with the same active ingredient as
Wegovy.
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The logo of German pharmaceutical
company Boehringer Ingelheim is seen at its building in Shanghai,
China February 1, 2019. Picture taken February 1, 2019.
REUTERS/Stringer
Like the other drugs, BI 456906
works by reducing the effect of a gut hormone called glucagon-like
peptide-1 (GLP-1) that is involved in regulating appetite and food
intake.
But BI 456906 also blocks another gut hormone called glucagon.
Mounjaro also has a dual mechanism of action, but it blocks yet
another gut hormone in addition to GLP-1.
According to drug trial database clinicaltrials.gov, participants in
the Zealand/Boehringer trial were put into five groups by chance,
with four getting different doses of the experimental weekly shot
and the fifth getting a placebo.
(Reporting by Ludwig Burger, Editing by Louise Heavens)
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