Ozempic’s success has been so great that numerous pharmaceutical companies are now trying to replicate it. The latest to announce progress in this direction is Pfizer, and its bet is an alternative in pill form.
A new competitor? On Thursday, Pfizer announced further progress in the development of danuglipron, a weight loss drug. If the company succeeds in getting the project off the ground, this drug could be a new competitor to the already established Ozempic, Wegovy, and Zepbound, with one crucial difference: Danuglipron is administered in pill form, not injected.
Danuglipron. The new drug is a GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide type 1) receptor agonist. It’s a member of the GLP-1 receptor agonist family, which includes semaglutide (the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy) and tripeptide (from Zepbound and Mounjaro).
Pharmaceutical companies developed these types of drugs to control blood sugar levels in patients with type 2 diabetes, but they soon became popular as weight loss formulas. The main reason is the feeling of being sated produced by the medicines.
Clinical trials. Pfizer subjected danuglipron to a new phase of clinical trials to evaluate its safety and pharmacokinetics. This means that the pharmaceutical company is trying to determine how a drug evolves in our bodies, from when it’s administered until it’s eliminated.
This is important when adjusting the drug’s dosage. As the company explains, the studies indicate that the treatment will be administered as a daily pill.
Clinical trials of the drug have already involved 1,400 participants, all adults with no relevant health problems. According to the pharmaceutical company, Pfizer is conducting the clinical trial in a randomized, open-label format—meaning that the patients and those responsible for administering the drug know which treatment they're receiving—instead of carrying out double-blind trials.
Stock market effect. Following the publication of the press release, the pharmaceutical company’s shares rose by more than 2% during the day.
Late to the party? Despite the rebound, some analysts are skeptical. Umer Raffat, one of Wall Street’s most respected biotech and pharma sell-side analysts, told Fortune that Pfizer was “probably buying some time” with this latest update. Raffat was referring to the fact that the announced developments aren’t definitive but somewhat tentative.
U.S. and European health authorities have already approved several weight loss treatments. Bloomberg Intelligence estimated that danuglipron could reach the markets by 2028. It also points out that by then, even more pharmaceutical companies will have their own alternatives on the market.
Image | Martin Lopez
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