Diet pill race heats up as obesity drug data | Wilnesh News

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Happy Friday! Buried in this week’s election news is new data on drugmakers vying to get into the booming weight-loss drug market.

pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca and biotechnology companies Viking therapy In recent days, at the Obesity Week conference in San Antonio, Texas, several companies presented encouraging data on their weight-loss drugs and other treatments.

Wall Street is betting that a new wave of growth in obesity will be driven by drugs that offer more convenience and potentially fewer side effects, allowing patients to take their medications longer. Analysts expect the weight-loss drug market to be worth more than $100 billion by the end of the decade as more treatments become available and help fill demand for existing injectables. Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly and Company Still trying to keep up.

Here are some data on the drug.

Results from an early-stage study of 92 people showed that those who took the highest dose of Viking’s daily pills lost an average of 6.8% more weight after 28 days than those who took a placebo.

That beat investor expectations for a 5% to 6% weight loss compared with a placebo, William Blair analyst Andy Hsieh said in a note on Monday. He points to an experimental pill from Novo Nordisk that set the standard, reducing body weight by 5 percent in four weeks.

Xie also said Viking’s drug showed “highly benign tolerability,” referring to how well patients tolerated the drug. Six of the nine participants who took the highest dose of the drug experienced mild nausea, while only one experienced vomiting.

This could be an advantage over existing bariatric injections, which can cause gastrointestinal side effects that make some patients so uncomfortable that they discontinue treatment.

Still, some analysts question whether Viking can capture a significant share of the competitive market for weight-loss drugs, particularly raising concerns about its ability as a small company to produce enough of the drug.

“We are not saying it is impossible for Viking to produce this product, but we believe that production will be difficult due to capital requirements and expertise beyond what Eli Lilly and Novo currently have,” Deutsche Bank analyst James Shin said in a note on Monday. The cost will be high.

But Hsieh said he believed Viking offered “unique and attractive characteristics in the eyes of big pharma.” There has been speculation that Virgin may be acquired by a major pharmaceutical company.

In addition to pills, Virgin is developing weight-loss injections and other treatments.

Meanwhile, AstraZeneca said its experimental weight-loss drug was well tolerated by people with type 2 diabetes in an early-stage study and presented data from several studies on three new treatments during the meeting.

AstraZeneca announced last year it would license the once-daily pill from Chinese drugmaker Eccogene, saying it believed it would cause fewer side effects than injectable treatments from Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly and Company.

Diabetic patients lost 5.8% of their body weight after four weeks of treatment with AstraZeneca.

Some analysts said it was difficult to compare the data to other weight-loss drugs because the AstraZeneca study was small and tested in patients with diabetes rather than obesity. Still, AstraZeneca said it believed its drug was different from other treatments in development and on the market, especially given that it was well tolerated by patients.

Please feel free to send Annika any tips, suggestions, story ideas and data: annikakim.constantino@nbcuni.com.

Here’s how Americans voted on abortion rights

More than two years after Roe v. Wade was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, Americans are voting in 10 states this week on whether to allow abortion or expand access to it.

Abortion access is a hot issue during this year’s presidential campaign, especially among female voters. President-elect Trump recently said he believed the issue should be left to states, but he has previously expressed support for various proposals for a nationwide ban.

Ballots are still being counted across the country, but here’s how Americans’ vote on abortion will look, according to NBC News projections:

Arizona: via

Arizona voters passed Proposition 139, which gives the state the right to perform abortions until a fetus is viable around 24 weeks.

The measure passed with 61.2% of the vote, while 38.8% of Arizonans voted against it, NBC News reported. So far, about 74% of expected votes have been counted.

Colorado: Via

Colorado voters passed Amendment 79, writing abortion rights into the state constitution. It also lifts a ban on using public funds to pay for abortions, meaning more Coloradans can have access to abortion coverage.

According to NBC News, Amendment 79 passed with 61.9% of the vote. Approximately 86% of expected voting has been completed.

Florida: Failed

Florida voters rejected Amendment 4, which established the constitutional right to have an abortion before the fetus is viable or when necessary to protect the patient’s health. The state currently bans abortion after six weeks of pregnancy.

According to NBC News, more than 57% of Floridians voted in favor of the amendment. It requires over 60% to pass. About 96% of expected votes have been counted.

Maryland: via

Maryland voters enshrined abortion rights into the state’s constitution through reproductive freedom rights, which include “the ability to make and carry out decisions to prevent, continue, or terminate one’s own pregnancy.”

The measure passed with 74.7% of the vote, NBC News reported. Approximately 83% of expected voting has been completed.

Missouri: via

Missouri voters passed the Third Amendment, enshrining the right to reproductive freedom in the state’s constitution. The amendment gives residents “the right to make and carry out decisions on all matters relating to reproductive health care,” including abortion.

According to NBC News, Amendment 3 passed with 51.7% of the vote, while 48.3% of the state voted against it. Approximately 99% of expected voting has been completed.

Montana: via

Montana voters enshrined the right to abortion in the state’s constitution by establishing the right “to make and carry out decisions regarding one’s own pregnancy.”

The measure passed with 57.6% of the vote, with 42.4% of voters voting against it, NBC News reported. About 96% of expected votes have been counted.

Nebraska: Mixed

Nebraska voters did not pass an amendment that would have expanded abortion to include viable fetuses around 24 weeks, but they did pass a measure that would write existing abortion restrictions into the state constitution. Nebraska bans abortion after 12 weeks unless there is a medical emergency or the pregnancy is the result of sexual assault or incest.

According to NBC News, nearly 49% of Nebraska voters voted in favor of expanding abortion access, while 51.4% voted against it. The amendment banning abortion after three months of pregnancy passed with 55.3% of the vote. Approximately 94% of expected voting has been completed.

Nevada: via

Nevada voters approved an amendment banning abortions after the first trimester unless medically necessary. The amendment also provides for exceptions if the pregnancy is the result of incest or sexual assault.

The amendment passed with 64% of the vote, NBC News reported. So far, about 92% of expected votes have been counted.

New York: Via

New York voters passed Proposition 1, which protects the right to abortion in the state constitution. The proposal says people cannot be denied rights because of their gender, including “sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, reproductive health care and autonomy.”

According to NBC News, nearly 62% of New York voters voted in favor of the proposal, while 38.1% voted against it. Approximately 88% of expected voting has been completed.

South Dakota: Failed

South Dakota voters failed to pass Amendment G, which would have established an abortion right in the state’s constitution. The state bans all abortions unless medically necessary to save the patient’s life.

According to NBC News, more than 41% of voters in the state voted in favor of the amendment, while 58.6% voted against it. About 99% of expected votes have been counted.

Please feel free to send Ashley any tips, suggestions, story ideas, and data: ashley.capoot@nbcuni.com.