Pfizer discards one weight loss medication in ethnicity to conceive Ozempic adversary

June 27, 2023: On Monday, Pfizer stated that it would quit producing its observed obesity and diabetes medication, lotiglipron, because of high liver enzymes in people who took the drug once a day in midstage clinical studies.

Those elevated enzymes often indicate damage to cells in the liver, but the pharmaceutical giant said no patients experienced liver-related symptoms or side effects.

New York-based Pfizer said it would instead focus on its other oral obesity drug, danuglipron, in a fully enrolled phase two clinical trial.

That study found that body weight was reduced after patients with Type 2 diabetes took high-dose versions of danuglipron twice a day for 16 weeks, according to results Pfizer released last month.

The company expects to finalize plans for a phase three clinical trial program on danuglipron by the end of 2023. Pfizer added that it is also developing a version of danuglipron that patients take once a day instead of twice.

“We look forward to analyzing the danuglipron Phase 2 results and selecting the dose and titration schedule that will maximize the therapeutic benefit and safety and tolerability,” William Sessa, Pfizer’s chief scientific officer of internal medicine, said in a press release.

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla has said that an obesity pill could generate $10 billion yearly for the company.

Lotiglipron, danuglipron, and Novo Nordisk’s blockbuster weight loss injections Ozempic and Wegovy are part of a class of drugs called glucagon-like peptide-1 agonists.

They mimic a hormone in the gut called GLP-1, which signals to the brain when a person is whole.

The drugs can also help people manage Type 2 diabetes by encouraging insulin release from the pancreas, lowering blood sugar levels.

Oral drugs such as Pfizer’s danuglipron could offer an advantage over frequent injections. Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly are also developing experimental obesity and diabetes pills.

The new class of obesity drugs is piquing public interest and causing a weight loss industry gold rush. But there’s still uncertainty about their accessibility, and questions remain about how long patients would need to take the drugs to keep unwanted weight off.

On Monday, in a research note, Wells Fargo analyst Mohit Bansal said that Pfizer’s decision to compete in the oral weight loss drug space with danuglipron would be challenging, given robust data on Eli Lilly’s experimental pill orforglipron.