The pharma giant presented more details of a small trial of its weight loss pill
Ozempic maker Novo Nordisk (NVO) shared more details about its experimental anti-obesity pill — that seems to be more powerful than current weight loss drugs on the market — Wednesday at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) annual meeting in Madrid.
Results of a small phase 1 clinical trial of amycretin suggest that the pill could lead to more and faster weight loss than the Danish pharma giant’s popular weekly injection Wegovy.
Novo Nordisk said that patients that took a once-daily 50mg dose of amycretin lost an average of 10.4% of their weight in just three months, according to an abstract of the study. Trial participants that took two pills lost even more weight, 13.1% at three months.
For comparison, a larger clinical trial of Wegovy found that it helped users lose about 15% of their body weight over 68 weeks.
It’s important to note that larger phase II, III, and IV trials, involving thousands more participants, could return different results.
The main difference between amycretin and Wegovy, aside from how it’s administered, is that the former stimulates two different gut hormones while the latter only stimulates one.
In addition to stimulating glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1), like Wegovy, amycretin also stimulates amylin. Both of which impact blood sugar levels and appetite.
The side effects of the pill were similar to current weight loss drugs and were related to gastrointestinal discomfort like nausea and vomiting, according to the abstract.
The company had previously teased the experimental pill when it gave investors a brief update of the trial in March.
At the time, Novo Nordisk CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen told CNBC that amycretin “could develop into a best-in-class medicine.”
Novo Nordisk isn’t alone in developing a weight loss pill that could help patients that are hesitant to take weekly injections.
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