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Amgen stock picked up 13% during Friday morning trading, a day after its CEO Robert Bradway teased encouraging trial results of its experimental weight loss drug MariTide.
“The interim phase 2 analysis for this study is complete, and we are very encouraged with results that we’ve seen thus far and with the conduct of the trial,” Bradway said Thursday on a call with investors. “Following the interim analysis, I would say, we’re confident in MariTide’s differentiated profile and believe it will address important unmet medical needs.”
While results from the study will be released in late 2024, the company is already planning a larger phase 3 trial of drug for multiple uses, including obesity and diabetes.
Bradway’s comments come as several pharma companies are aiming to disrupt the weight loss drug duopoly dominated by Novo Nordisk, known for making Ozempic and Wegovy, and Eli Lilly, the producer of Zepbound.
Morgan Stanley analysts anticipate that the global market for GLP-1 drugs — the class of drug these weight loss medications belong to — will reach $105 billion by 2030. It also projects the drugs will be adopted by about 31.5 million people in the United States, or about 9% of the nation’s population, by 2035.
MariTide vs. Wegovy
An early stage trial of MariTide found that users on the drug lost average of 14.5% of their weight in about 12 weeks. For comparison, a clinical trial of Wegovy found that participants lost an average of 15% of their weight in 68 weeks.
Amgen Chief Scientific Officer James E. Bradner told inverstors that MariTide is expected to be sold in a “convenient, handheld, patient-friendly auto-injector device with a monthly or even less frequent single-injection administration.” This is opposed to the weekly injections required for weight loss drugs currently on the market.