Roche has achieved positive results in patients in a phase 2 clinical trial with a new weight loss injection.
This paves the way for the start of the Swiss pharmaceutical company’s first study on obesity treatment in the late phase.
Currently, Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk’s GLP-1 drugs dominate the obesity drug market, but major pharmaceutical companies such as Roche, Pfizer and Amgen, as well as smaller players, are trying to develop new treatments to compete with them.
Roche wants to become one of the three leading providers in the attractive market and to build its own obesity division. The pharmaceutical giant is currently researching several drug candidates that will be brought to market as individual therapies or in combination with one another.
With the purchase of Carmot Therapeutics, Roche acquired potential weight loss preparations in the form of injections and tablets. In addition, a license agreement was concluded with the Danish company Zealand Pharma for the joint development of another therapy.
On Tuesday, the Swiss pharmaceutical company announced that a once-weekly injection of the drug candidate CT-388, acquired from Carmot, resulted in a 22.5 percent weight loss after 48 weeks, adjusted for placebo. The reduction was achieved with the highest tested dose of 24 milligrams, without reaching a plateau in weight loss. Roche said 54 percent of study participants who received the maximum dose achieved a cure for their obesity.
Vontobel analyst Stefan Schneider described the study results as encouraging. A late-stage clinical trial of CT-388 in obesity is scheduled to begin this quarter. The other anti-obesity drugs in Roche’s pipeline are in earlier stages of development.
Roche had already announced that it would accelerate the development program for CT-388 due to its potential. The drug could come onto the market in 2028 and, according to the company’s estimates, achieve peak annual sales of more than 3 billion Swiss francs.
“The strong weight loss coupled with a well-tolerated safety profile strengthens our confidence in the clinical development program as we advance into Phase 3 trials,” said Levi Garraway, chief medical officer and head of global product development at Roche. The injection’s safety and tolerability profile was generally consistent with that of its drug class, and no new or unexpected safety signals were identified, the company said.
Gastrointestinal side effects were mostly mild to moderate, and the dropout rate of participants due to adverse events was low at 5.9 percent, said Roche.
Goldman leaves Roche at ‘neutral’ – target of 365 francs
The US investment bank Goldman Sachs has left Roche’s rating at “neutral” with a price target of 365 francs. The results of the phase II study with CT-388 indicate a competitive profile for the weight loss drug, wrote James Quigley on Tuesday. He expects further details at the annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association (ADA) in June.
Jefferies leaves Roche at ‘underperform’ – target of 230 francs
– The analysis house Jefferies has left Roche’s rating at “Underperform” with a price target of 230 francs. “A new day, a new incretin” – the market for weight loss products is becoming increasingly competitive, wrote Michael Leuchten on Tuesday. Ultimately, the phase II data for Roche’s CT-388 would be about on par with Eli Lilly’s Zepbound. When CT-388 is through Phase III, there will probably be many more alternatives on the market.
The Roche share was temporarily 0.29 percent lower at CHF 349.50 in Swiss trading.
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