Merck seeks GLP-1 drugs with benefits beyond weight loss, says CEO
Rahway: Merck & Co is seeking GLP-1 treatments with benefits beyond weight loss, CEO Robert Davis said on Thursday at a conference.
Newer diabetes and weight-loss drugs of the GLP-1 class like Novo Nordisk's Wegovy and Ozempic and Eli Lilly's Mounjaro and Zepbound are expected to together generate annual sales of over $100 billion by the end of the decade.
Merck's experimental drug efinopegdutide, which belongs to the GLP-1 class and is being developed as a treatment for non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), also showed a "compelling" weight-loss benefit.
Showing benefits beyond weight loss will potentially make it easier to get reimbursement for the drugs, Davis said.
"I think everyone recognizes weight management is a hard thing to get reimbursed. But if you can show cardiovascular outcome, if you can show diabetes outcome, which you're starting to see data for, if you can see fatty liver disease benefits...that is an area where we think there's opportunity," he said.
Read also: Merck gets European Commission nod for two new indications for Keytruda in gastrointestinal cancers
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