AstraZeneca says experimental obesity pill ‘competitive,’ Bloomberg reports

AstraZeneca (AZN) said Monday at the ObesityWeek conference in San Antonio, Texas that its experimental obesity pill was well-tolerated by patients with type-2 diabetes as it presented data from several studies testing its three new weight-loss medicines, reported Bloomberg. The oral GLP-1 drug resulted in patients losing an average of 5.8% of their body weight over four weeks in a small, early study, the report noted. Astra also presented early data on two other obesity drugs on Monday – a drug targeting the hormone amylin and an injectable GLP-1 – and noted that all three obesity assets are moving to mid-stage trials and were “highly competitive,” according to Bloomberg, citing Sharon Barr, executive vice-president of biopharmaceuticals R&D. The obesity medicines market has so far been dominated by Novo Nordisk’s (NVO) Wegovy and Eli Lilly’s (LLY) Zepbound, noted Bloomberg, which also points out that Viking Therapeutics (VKTX) also presented data on its experimental pill at the conference and that Lilly and Novo also have pills for weight loss in the works.