Ray Stevens, CEO of Structure Therapeutics Inc., during a Bloomberg Television interview at the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco, Jan. 12, 2026.
Benjamin Fanjoy | Bloomberg | fake images
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After the launch of the first GLP-1 weight loss pill in Nordisk This month, obesity was the main topic at the annual JPMorgan Healthcare Conference, which attracted thousands of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, investors, advisors and analysts.
I sat down with Ray Stevens, the CEO of Hope Obesity Market. Structural therapeuticson the path forward for biotech and his expectations for the future of the burgeoning GLP-1 space.
It's a big year for Structure, as the company's daily oral GLP-1 is scheduled to enter Phase 3 trials. Structure's stock soared more than 100% on Dec. 9 after it released midterm data showing that its pill, aleniglipron, helped obese patients lose more than 11% of their weight at 36 weeks, when adjusted for placebo.
Below are some highlights from my interview with Stevens at the conference.
What will define your company's success this year?
Stevens said 2026 is about preparing for phase 3 trials of aleniglipron. He said he believes Novo Nordisk's now-approved pill and an upcoming rival oral drug from Eli Lilly will have strong launches, and that Structure's pill is “next in line” to enter the market.
“I think we will have very good tailwinds with potentially best-in-class medicine,” he told CNBC.
Stevens said he's proud of the data that came out about the drug in December, touting its “really good efficacy” and tolerability, or data on how well patients tolerated the treatment. In the Phase 2 trial, there were no discontinuations due to side effects among patients who started taking the drug at a low dose of 2.5 milligrams.
What will make your pill competitive in the market?
Sheldon Cooper | Light rocket | fake images
Stevens said there are four reasons.
First, effectiveness. The Phase 2 trial conducted in December showed that a higher dose, 240 milligrams, helped patients lose up to 15.3% of their weight at 36 weeks, when adjusted for placebo.
Stevens said other competitors report that level of weight loss after a longer period of time, such as 60 to 72 weeks.
Safety is another factor, he added. For example, Structure saw no drug-related liver injuries in the pill studies, a problem that dogged other experimental treatments for oral obesity.
Stevens said the third reason is the relatively low cost of manufacturing the pill, which is a small molecule drug.
“We have the ability to scale to a very large scale, so we can easily supply the entire US market,” he said.
The fourth factor, he said, is that Structure's pill is combinable.
The company released data showing it can combine its oral GLP-1 with its other drug targeting the gut hormone amylin and achieve “really synergistic effects,” Stevens said. He added that an oral GLP-1 can be combined with other types of treatments, such as PCSK9 inhibitors, or drugs that drastically reduce “bad” LDL cholesterol.
“Aleniglipron is very combinable with other medications, so we are excited,” Stevens said.
What role do you think pills will play in this space?
Oral medications could expand the market, Stevens said. He noted that 100 million people in the U.S. need treatment for obesity, but only about 5 million receive existing shots.
The “real growth” and acceptance of the pills will come from primary care doctors, who write the majority of prescriptions for Americans, Stevens said.
These doctors prefer the pills because of their flexibility, he added.
Stevens said he has seen cases where patients who receive the injections experience side effects and “are really unhappy for a week and will never go near that needle again.” But daily pills can make taking the medications easier.
For example, he said a patient might cut a pill in half to mitigate side effects on a day when they have to attend an important meeting.
What does the future hold for the anti-obesity drug market?
Stevens said he believes combinations “will be the next phase of the field.”
“I feel like winners are now starting to emerge for monotherapy treatments,” he said. But Stevens said the patient population will be segmented based on what other health conditions a person has besides obesity, such as fatty liver disease, chronic kidney disease and cardiovascular disease.
That's where combinations can come into play, helping to treat a condition better than a single product.
Looking ahead, Stevens said he hopes access and affordability will no longer be an issue in this space. The market has come a long way over the past year. Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly are cutting cash prices on their upcoming injections and pills, while Medicare coverage for anti-obesity drugs will begin later this year.
Stevens said he's “on board with cost reduction because, to me, it's always been about volume and trying to address a very large unmet need globally.”
He said he also hopes patients will have more treatment options in the future, whether it's a once-a-month injectable or different types of pills.
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