New Delhi, January 12 (IANS). Current obesity medications require injections under the skin once a week. This medicine activates glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor (GLP-1R). But now new medicines are coming, which will work by injection only once a month. According to a report, these can become next generation medicines for the treatment of obesity.
A report from data and analytics company GlobalData reveals that anti-obesity drugs are the industry trend that will have the biggest impact over the next 12 months.
Rising rates of obesity globally are creating a wave of investment in the obesity market, potentially leading to the development of the next generation of obesity drugs. Under this, work is being done on new medicines, which are focusing on finding new ways to treat obesity, creating oral medicines instead of injections and reducing the frequency of medicine doses to reduce the burden on patients.
Although the currently available weekly injections from Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly have gained much popularity, they can sometimes be a burden to the patient.
According to the report, Amgen and Metsera are two companies that are pushing the option of taking the obesity drug once a month.
Costanza Alciati, pharma analyst at GlobalData, said, however, “it is critical to the success of these ultra long acting candidates that they show efficacy equivalent to once-weekly treatments currently available.”
Amgen’s Maritide (maridebord cafradutide) was an effective drug taken once a month. The drug caused an average weight loss of 17 percent in patients over 52 weeks. There was no extent of weight loss in patients and 99 percent of them lost more than 5 percent of their body weight.
Meanwhile, Metsera announced the results for its MET-097i. It was initially designed as a once-weekly dosage. But due to its long effective duration, it is also being seen as an option to take it once a month.
Alsiati said, “The trial time was short and the number of patients was also small. Despite this, it showed an average weight loss result of 11.3% in just 12 weeks. This weight loss result in such a short period of time is really remarkable. “Now we will see if these results can be maintained with larger trials and more patients.”
Overall, this is an exciting time in obesity drug development.
GlobalData estimates that GLP-1R agonists will reach sales of $125.3 billion by 2033 in seven major markets (namely, the US, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK, and Japan), and 90 percent of sales will come from obesity drugs.
–IANS
MKS/AS
