STAT+: Detailed data show Pfizer’s monthly obesity drug continues to show potential
Article excerpt
Pfizer's obesity drug berobenatide, acquired from biotech firm Metsera, demonstrated sustained weight-loss benefits in a midstage trial when administered monthly rather than weekly. The detailed results provide encouraging evidence that the once-monthly dosing schedule could offer a practical advantage over existing obesity treatments that require more frequent injections. The finding comes as pharmaceutical companies race to develop alternatives to GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy, which have dominated the obesity treatment market. Pfizer's approach targets a different mechanism and could expand treatment options for patients seeking less frequent dosing.
Detailed data from a mid-stage study offered further evidence that the obesity drug Pfizer acquired from the biotech Metsera could be dosed monthly. But it’s not clear how competitive the treatment would be against weekly injectables on the market and in development that may lead to greater weight loss.
In the study, called VESPER-3, patients with obesity took weekly doses of the drug, called berobenatide, for 12 weeks and then transitioned to higher monthly doses out to 28 weeks. By then, patients lost up to 12.1% of their weight, when analyzing just those who stayed on treatment, as Pfizer previously reported.
New data presented at the annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association on Saturday show that when patients transitioned from weekly to monthly dosing, the rate of weight loss continued at a similar pace; they had not yet hit a plateau by 28 weeks. That’s a promising sign, but the rate of weight loss at 28 weeks was still less than what was seen at a similar time point in the pivotal trial of Eli Lilly’s Zepbound.
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