August 20, 2023
Boehringer Ingelheim could soon stake a claim in the lucrative obesity treatment market after the pharma company said it has advanced a candidate into three Phase III trials following promising data.
Servodutide, the company’s glucagon/glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) receptor dual agonist co-developed with Zeland Pharma, demonstrated up to 19% weight loss after 46 weeks of treatment in a Phase II dose escalation trial investigating the drug in patients living with obesity without type 2 diabetes (T2D).
Boehringer Ingelheim said that insights from previous studies will be used to inform the design of the three Phase III trials which will investigate the efficacy and safety of survodutide. Enrolment of patients is planned before the end of 2023, with the company saying that study details will be unveiled nearer to trial commencement.
Survodutide has previously received a US Food and Drug Administration fast track designation for its use as a treatment for adults with or without T2D who have liver fibrosis and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). It will now go up against rival GLP-1 agonists in the weight loss treatment space. Novo Nordisk’s blockbuster drug Wegovy dominates the market, but Eli Lilly is mounting fierce competition with its first-in-class therapy retatrutide – a drug that offers triple-agonist (triple-G) mechanism of action. Last month, the company unveiled record breaking weight loss data for the drug.