Photo shows the logo of Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche in Basel.
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Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly and Company Shares fell on Wednesday Roche announced promising early-stage trial data for its latest obesity drug candidate.
Swiss pharmaceutical giant said wednesday A second drug candidate from its acquisition of Carmot Therapeutics showed positive results, further increasing competition in the weight-loss drug market.
Roche shares surged in early trading, rising 5.87% as of 11:17 a.m. London time.
Shares of Wegovy maker Novo Nordisk fell 3.77%, and shares of Zepbound maker Eli Lilly fell about 2.7% in premarket trading.
Danish biotech company Zealand Pharma is also developing its own obesity treatment drug, and its stock price also fell by more than 5.6%.
Roche said its experimental once-daily pill CT-996 reduced a placebo-adjusted mean weight loss of 6.1% over four weeks in obese patients without type 2 diabetes in a Phase I trial.
“We are pleased to see clinically meaningful weight loss in patients treated with our oral GLP-1 therapy, CT-996, which ultimately can help patients address long-term weight management and glycemic control challenges,” said Levi Garraway, chief medical officer at Roche. question.
The results come as competition intensifies in the fast-growing field of weight-loss drugs, with Roche’s oral drug potentially providing an attractive alternative for patients who don’t like injections.
Roche is done get In January, the company released early data from anti-obesity drug developer Carmot Therapeutics, and in May it released promising early data from another weight loss candidate, CT-388.
However, Roche CEO Teresa Graham told CNBC in December that oral obesity treatments may still be years away from being widely available.
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