Pfizer halts trial for twice a day weight loss drug

With the new generation of diabetes drugs becoming a rage owing to their weight-loss properties, the shares of the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer took a tumble on Friday after the company announced that it was not proceeding to a phase 3 trial for its twice-daily regimen of a similar drug.

The reason for its decision was the high rates of adverse events such as nausea, vomiting, and diarrhoea leading to nearly half the participants discontinuing the medication.

At least two medicines targeting GLP-1 receptors  Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide and Eli Lilly’s Tirzepatide have already been approved for weight management.

The statement added that the rate of discontinuation was also higher, with more than half the participants across all the doses administered stopped the therapy. To compare, nearly 40% of those who were being given the placebo discontinued.

While there were higher rates of adverse effects associated with the medicine, the drug did what it was  bring down the body weight of obese individuals and reduce blood glucose levels of those who had diabetes.

The company said that the twice-daily regimen of danuglipron reduced body weight significantly between 6.9% and 11.7% at 32 weeks.

An analysis of the medicine at 16 weeks was published in the journal JAMA earlier this year.

The study found that 31% to 61% of the participants given different doses of the medicine were able to control their HbA1c levels  the three-month average blood glucose levels.

When it comes to weight-loss, however, significant changes were seen only in the groups receiving the two highest doses of the medicine. At 16 weeks, 22% of the participants given the second-highest dose of 80 mg and 47% given the highest dose of 120 mg were able to shed 5% of their body weight.

The rate of adverse events recorded at 16 weeks was similar to what was seen in phase 2 trials for the other drug from the same category Semaglutide as per the study.