Roche obesity data read-throughs ‘may be a bit premature,’ says RBC Capital

RBC Capital believes Gilead (GILD) shares are up on perceived read-throughs from top-line data reported by Roche (RHHBY) for their oral GLP-1 drug CT-996, which showed 7% weight loss over 4 weeks. While the firm senses that there still are active discussions around the data details/disclosures, it appears to have generated further interest in oral GLP-1s and Gilead’s preclinical GLP-1 agonist GS-4571. When RBC compares what it believes may be the potential molecular structure of Gilead’s GS-4571 and those found in Roche/Carmot’s patents, one does see some resemblance to one another, as well as to the structure of Pfizer’s (PFE) danuglipron. While several molecules with similar backbones to ‘4751 have produced promising weight loss signals, the firm notes that much of the necessary details around its tolerability, titration curve, characteristics of enrolled subjects, among others, are yet to be shared, which it believes will be important to further ascertain the clinical benefit/risk profiles of this class. RBC has a Sector Perform rating on Gilead’s shares with a price target of $71.