Reworked once-daily weight-loss pill from Pfizer to progress

American pharmaceutical giant Pfizer have continued with a reworked version of their weight-loss pill danuglipron, progressing with a once-daily version of the pill. 

The weight-loss drug market has been dominating in the last year, with both Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Eli Lilly’s Zepbound estimated to bring in over US$150 billion in annual sales by 2030. While Pfizer have not released an exact timeline of danuglipron’s development, the company have stated their plans to evaluate multiple doses of the reformulated drug later this year before continuing to clinical trials. Earlier trials of the twice-daily version of danuglipron were halted after patients left midstage trials due to high rates of nausea and vomiting side effects. Pfizer have already scrapped their other weight-loss drug lotiglipron due to safety concerns regarding high levels of liver enzymes in some patients. 

While concerns of side effects continue to caution analysts, Pfizer have stated that early study testing of a once-daily dose of danuglipron have shown no liver enzyme elevations in over 1400 healthy adult volunteers. Danuglipron is the latest in a line of GLP-1 agonists designed to mimic the action of GLP-1 hormones. This hormone regulates blood sugar levels, slows digestion, and suppresses appetite. Several companies such as Amgen and Viking Therapeutics have begun work on their own GLP-1 agonist drug products for next-generation weight-loss treatments.  

Source: 

Pfizer moves forward with once-daily weight-loss pill [Accessed July 12, 2024] https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/pfizer-moves-forward-with-once-daily-weight-loss-drug-2024-07-11/