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Pfizer On Monday, he said that the development of his experimental pill of daily weight loss would end after a patient experienced a liver lesion that was potentially caused by the medication in an essay.
The patient did not experience any symptom or side effects related to the liver, said a PFIZER spokesman in a statement. They added that the patient's liver enzymes “quickly recovered” after they stopped taking the pill, which is an oral GLP-1 drug called Danuglipron. The statement suggests that the patient's liver enzymes were high, which often indicates damage to cells in the organ and is a problem that has been related to other medications for obesity.
The case occurred in a trial that quickly increased the dose of the pill for a short period of time, said the spokesman. Pfizer's decision to stop the development of the medication occurred after “a review of all the information, including all the clinical data generated to date for Danuglipron and the recent contributions of the regulators,” according to a statement.
“While we are disappointed to suspend the development of Danuglipron, we remain committed to evaluating and advancing in promising programs in an effort to bring new innovative medications to patients,” said Dr. Chris Boshoff, scientific director of Pfizer, in the statement. He added that the company is still developing other drugs to lose weight.
The announcement adds to a series of setbacks in the company's attempt to win a rise market portion for LPG-1, which mimic intestinal hormones to reduce appetite and regulate blood sugar. Pfizer is among several drug manufacturers that run to bring a more convenient weight loss medication to a space dominated by weekly injections, but spends years behind competitors such as Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk.
Some Wall Street analysts expect the LPG-1 industry to valid more than $ 150 billion in the early 2030s. Oral LPG-1 could grow to assert $ 50 billion of that total, while the injections would explain the rest, according to some estimates of analysts.
This is not Pfizer's first setback with Danuglipron, specifically, either. The company suspended a version of the pill twice a day in December 2023 after patients had problems tolerate the medication in a medium stage study.
But Pfizer seemed to have confidence in Danuglipron's form once a day in July, when he said he would start studying in the second half of the year to evaluate multiple doses of the pill.
Despite his decision to discard the medication, Pfizer said on Monday that these studies met the key objectives and confirmed a certain form and dose of the pill with the potential to offer “competitive efficacy and tolerability” in the tests in late stage.
The company also noted that the high liver enzyme rate in people who have taken Danuglipron is in line with the approved LPG-1 medications, which is based on a safety database of more than 1,400 patients who have taken the Pfizer pill.
Pfizer rejected a different obesity pill once a day in June 2023 after patients who took that medication had higher liver enzyme levels in a medium stage trial. Investors have been pessimistic about the company's potential in the GLP-1 space since then.
Even so, Pfizer has other experimental medications of obesity in its pipe in the early stages of development that seem differently to their now discontinued treatments. That includes an oral drug that blocks another intestinal hormone called GIPR, which entered phase two tests last year, and an additional oral LP-1 once a day in phase one tests.
Pfizer believes that a drug aimed at GIPR could be more effective and easier for patients tolerate, he told investors in October. He added that “there are so many applications for LPG-1.”
Danuglipron de Pfizer promotes weight loss by attacking LPG-1, which is also how treatment with novo nordisk weight loss injection ozempic. The weight loss injection of Eli Lilly Zepbound and Diabetes fired Mounjaro LPL-1, but also activate another intestinal hormone called GIP.
The only Oral LPG-1 approved by the Food and Drug Administration until now is the Rybelsus of Novo Nordisk, which treats type 2 diabetes and raised around $ 3.38 billion in sales in 2024.
Pfizer's announcement occurs on Monday when the company recovers its balance and recovers the price of its shares after the rapid decline of its Covid business. Pfizer is betting on its cancer medication pipe to generate long -term growth, but has emphasized that obesity is a key approach.
