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Pfizer said Thursday it is moving ahead with the introduction of a once-daily version of its weight-loss drug danugliprone after receiving “encouraging” data from an ongoing early-stage study.
The company evaluated several once-daily formulations of the drug and identified one with “the most favorable profile.” Pfizer said it plans to conduct studies in the second half of the year to identify the ideal dose of the drug.
Pfizer is one of many pharmaceutical companies vying for a slice of the market for a wildly popular class of weight-loss and diabetes drugs called GLP-1 agonists. Some analysts expect the industry to be worth about $100 billion by the end of the decade.
The company’s shares rose more than 3% in premarket trading on Thursday.
Pfizer discontinued a twice-daily version of danugliprone in December after patients had trouble tolerating the drug in a mid-stage study. At the time, the pharmaceutical giant said that phase one trial data on the once-daily version would “provide a path forward.”
But investors have been pessimistic about the company’s potential in the GLP-1 space since it discontinued another once-daily pill in June 2023. That was one of a series of setbacks Pfizer faced last year, on top of a rapid decline in its Covid business that battered its stock.
Still, Pfizer has other experimental drugs in earlier stages of development, including one for obesity. The company has not disclosed how those treatments will work.
Pfizer is confident that GLP-1s are just the tip of the iceberg of what we’ll see in obesity, CEO Albert Bourla said at a conference in June.
Pfizer’s Danugliprone is a GLP-1 that promotes weight loss in the same way as Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy injection and the diabetes treatment Ozempic. The drugs mimic a single hormone produced in the gut called GLP-1, which signals the brain when a person is full.
Demand for injections from Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly has increased dramatically over the past year, despite high prices and limited insurance coverage.
The duo — along with Pfizer and other pharmaceutical companies — are in a race to develop oral versions that are easier for patients to take and easier to manufacture, which could help ease the shortage of supplies in the U.S.
Pfizer does not rule out an acquisition or collaboration with a smaller manufacturer of anti-obesity drugs.
Bourla told reporters at a conference in January that the company was unlikely to buy an obesity treatment in a later stage of development, especially as the company focuses on lowering costs.
But he said Pfizer was looking for potential licensing deals or weight-loss drugs at an earlier stage.
Pfizer’s update on danugliprone comes days after the company said it was searching for a successor to Chief Scientific Officer Mikael Dolsten, who will step down after more than 15 years at the drugmaker. Dolsten played a crucial role in developing Pfizer’s Covid vaccine.