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Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche said on Monday it was accelerating development of its rival Wegovy weight loss drug after promising early trial data.
The company’s two obesity drug candidates are entering the next phase of trials and could hit the market within the next few years, providing potential pill-based alternatives to Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Wegovy. Eli Lilly and CompanyZepbound weight loss injections.
“We are fast-tracking clinical development of our obesity portfolio with the goal of bringing these medicines to patients sooner than expected,” a spokesperson told CNBC via email.
The company did not reveal a new timeline, saying it would provide an update “in due course.” However, in a Interview with the Financial Times Chief Executive Thomas Schinecker said in an article published earlier Monday that the company’s first obesity drug could be available “much sooner than people expect,” possibly in 2028.
Roche Chief Executive Teresa Graham previously told CNBC in December that she expected the company to bring the products to market starting in 2030.
Roche’s CT-388 drug is currently entering a Phase 2 trial after results published in May showed it helped obese patients lose 18.8% of their body weight after 24 weeks compared with those who received a placebo.
The company’s experimental once-daily pill, CT-996, will enter Phase 2 testing next year, after a trial earlier this month showed it gave obese patients without type 2 diabetes a placebo-adjusted dose of The average weight loss was 6.1%.
Both CT-388 and CT-996 are part of Roche’s acquisition of US biotech company Carmot Therapeutics, which fully in January.
The encouraging results could make Roche a potential rival for obesity drug pioneers Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly. Schinecker told CNBC last week that he expects the company to eventually offer a suite of obesity drugs.
“There are a lot of things in our product line that really differentiate us from other players,” Schinecker told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe.”
“We do believe we have two next-generation GLP-1/GIPs that have the best potential to treat disease,” he said of the obesity drug.
“We also have a number of different drugs in our own portfolio that we can combine with (obesity drugs),” he added, emphasizing Gym 329 As an example of drugs that combat muscle loss, a key side effect of weight loss.
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