Hello! Several pharmaceutical manufacturers are rushing to capitalize on one among the subsequent big innovations within the booming weight-loss drug market: effective, convenient and potentially inexpensive anti-obesity pills.
Most of the weight-loss and diabetes drugs available today are weekly injections, akin to Novo Nordisk's Wegovy and Ozempic and Eli Lilly's Zepbound and Mounjaro. They are among the many drugs called GLP-1 agonists, which have skyrocketed in popularity within the last yr.
Now those competitors and other pharmaceutical firms like Pfizer are hoping to develop oral weight-loss and diabetes drugs which are more convenient for patients to take and easier to fabricate on a big scale. This development could help ease the provision shortages that plague existing injectable treatments within the United States.
In addition, tablets are generally cheaper than injections. However, it’s unclear whether this can also be the case for oral obesity medications.
Novo Nordisk has a low-dose oral version of semaglutide, the energetic ingredient in Wegovy and Ozempic, which costs $968.52 per 30 days before insurance and other discounts. The pill, sold under the name Rybelsus, is approved to treat diabetes. The current injections all have an inventory price of around $1,000 per 30 days.
Pfizer signaled on Thursday that it stays within the race to develop an obesity pill after a series of setbacks last yr. The company said it can Advance payment a once-daily version of the oral weight-loss drug danugliprone, in further studies to find out the best dosage.
Pfizer dissatisfied investors last yr after it scrapped a twice-daily version of danugliprone and a second oral obesity drug called lotigliprone.
But Pfizer's once-daily danugliprone remains to be in early development, and it's unclear whether the pharmaceutical giant will commit to conducting late-stage trials of danugliprone, which is required before it might probably seek regulatory approval.
Further ahead within the race are Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk.
Eli Lilly is developing an oral GLP-1 called orforglipron that helped patients lose as much as 14.7% of their weight after 36 weeks. midterm examcompared with 2.3% in those taking a placebo. Eli Lilly has previously stated that it expects results from late-stage trials of orforglipron in 2025.
Meanwhile, Novo Nordisk released last yr Results of the Phase 3 studys about its high-dose version of the oral semaglutide, which is meant for weight control. The pill helped patients lose a median of about 15% of their body weight after 68 weeks.
The company announced on the time that it planned to use for approval from the US Food and Drug Administration in 2023. However, Novo Nordisk has not provided any information on whether this has already happened.
In March, Novo Nordisk also promoted Data on one other experimental weight-loss pill called Amycretin, which helped people in an early trial lose 13.1% of their weight after 12 weeks. Results from a mid-stage trial will not be expected until 2026.
Amycretin suppresses appetite by targeting the identical gut hormone that Wegovy mimics, GLP-1. But amycretin also targets a pancreatic hormone called amylin, which affects hunger.
Here are a number of the other pharmaceutical firms developing oral drugs for obesity, diabetes, or each:
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Latest technology in healthcare
Things are looking up for the digital healthcare sector – not less than a bit of.
Digital health startups within the US raised $5.7 billion in 266 deals in the primary half of 2024, a report by Rock Health on Monday. If this pace continues, the variety of deals and funding amounts could surpass the totals of 2019 and 2023. Digital health startups raised $8.2 billion in 420 deals in 2019 and $10.7 billion in 498 deals last yr, in line with the report.
The “pandemic-related funding cycle” of 2020-2022 stays difficult to navigate, in line with Rock Health. Investors flocked to healthcare firms then, and funding peaked at $29.2 billion in 2021.
According to Rock Health, Series A activity was particularly strong in the primary half of 2024, although seed rounds and Series B checks were also popular. Seed, Series A and Series B funding accounted for nearly 85% of all marked raises during this era, the report said.
The company refers to rounds and not using a public title (akin to Series A) as “unmarked rounds.” Startups often conduct unmarked rounds to avoid valuation discounts and gain traction in difficult markets, although they often can’t avert difficult conversations without end.
According to Rock Health, the general share of unlabeled digital health deals peaked at 55% within the fourth quarter of 2023 and fell to 47% and 33% in the primary and second quarters of this yr, respectively.
“This decline may mark the beginning of our return to a more 'normal' rhythm of marked salary increases,” the report said.
Many Healthy Returns readers can probably guess what's next: Artificial intelligence attracted investors to many early-stage digital health firms in the primary half of this yr. Almost 40% of all digital health firms which have raised Series A funding rounds use AI, and 34% of the sector's total funding went to firms that use the technology in some form.
The ground might also be thawing within the digital health IPO market, which has been devoid of IPOs for nearly two years. Healthcare payment software provider Waystar and precision medicine company Tempus AI went public in June, while pregnancy monitoring company Nuvo went public via SPAC in May.
According to Rock Health, this exit activity reflects the slight increase in IPOs within the broader markets.
In summary, “Early-stage reviews are increasing, the proportion of unmarked transactions is decreasing, and the digital healthcare IPO market is showing signs of life,” the report said.
We need to wait and see what the remaining of the yr brings.
Feel free to send suggestions, suggestions, story ideas and data to Ashley at ashley.capoot@nbcuni.com.
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