A brand new weight reduction drug could see patients lose double the quantity of fat they’d shift on popular medications like Ozempic, early trial data has shown.
Obese patients taking the once-weekly injection lost roughly 19 percent of their body weight, on average, after five and a half months of the treatment.
In comparison, various trials have shown that semaglutide — the medication in Wegovy and Ozempic — ends in around 10 percent reduction in body weight after six months.
Further, those with pre-diabetes on the brand new drug were all found to be in remission by the top of the trial.
The study data, unveiled by Swiss pharma giant Roche Thursday, shows that the speed of uncomfortable side effects is comparable to that of other currently available injections.
The trial from Roche showed participants on the drug lost 18.8 percent of their body weight over 24 weeks on average
Roche’s share price jumped 4 percent on the news of the brand new drug. Shown above over the past five days
Side effects included mild to moderate gastrointestinal effects comparable to nausea and vomiting.
The drug, called CT-388, was tested in a phase 1 trial, designed to ascertain whether medications are protected for human use.
The study involved 31 obese adults with no underlying conditions including type 2 diabetes. A separate trial is planned to check the drug in diabetics.
At week 24, results showed that 45 percent of participants had lost greater than 20 percent of their body weight.
All the participants had lost at the least five percent of their weight.
Ozempic and Wegovy work by mimicking high levels of naturally occurring hormones that regulate blood sugar and suppress appetite.
Roche’s drug acts similarly to Mounjaro and Zepbound, made by pharma firm Eli Lilly.
It comprises the drug tirzepatide which, unlike semaglutide, acts on not one but two appetite-suppressing hormones.
These are Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) and the hormone Glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) — which each trigger feelings of fullness and suppress appetite.
Studies on Mounjaro and Zepbound suggest patients can expect to lose about 20 percent of their body weight after 36 weeks on the once weekly medications.
Dr Levi Garraway, Roche’s chief medical officer, said: ‘We are more than happy to see the numerous and clinically meaningful weight reduction in people treated with CT-388.
‘The results are highly encouraging for further development of CT-388 for each obesity and sort 2 diabetes and underscore its potential to turn into a best-in-class therapy with durable weight reduction and glucose control.’
The drug has an extended option to go before it reaches the approval stage, with several further trials needed to prove efficacy.
A price for the medication also has not been revealed, but Ozempic retails at upwards of $900 per 30 days.
The development comes as pharmaceutical firms race to money in on the load loss market boom, which is anticipated to surge to a price of $44billion by 2030, up from lower than $100million in 2020.
More than nine million prescriptions were written for drugs including Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro within the last three months of 2022, with firms racing to expand supply to fulfill the demand.
It also comes amid widespread shortages of weight reduction drugs, with many patients currently struggling to pay money for Zepbound and Mounjaro.
FDA data shows there are also shortages of Wegovy in some areas, which has been linked to ‘demand increase’ ahead of summer.
Roche’s share prices climbed immediately after the announcement of the study results, jumping 4 percent.
Other firms have also seen their share prices surge after announcing latest weight reduction drugs, including Novo Nordisk which saw shares tick up greater than eight percent in March after it reported a weight reduction of 13 percent after 12 weeks in phase 1 trials of its latest Amycretin pill.
Viking Therapeutics, based in California, saw its share value double after it reported phase two results for its own weight reduction drug.