Roche's Enicepatide Delivers 15.5% Weight Loss, Improves Blood Sugar in Diabetes Trial

Roche is racing alongside large drugmakers, including AstraZeneca , opens new tab and Amgen , opens new tab, to break into the lucrative ​obesity drug market and challenge leaders Eli Lilly, opens new tab and ​Novo Nordisk.

Here are more details:

• Roche's experimental drug, enicepatide, is ⁠a once-weekly injection that mimics GLP-1 and GIP hormones to ​reduce appetite and regulate blood sugar.
• Patients who received 24 milligrams ​of enicepatide, the highest dose, saw significant reductions in levels of HbA1c at 48 weeks, meeting the two main goals of the study, Roche ​said. HbA1c is a measure of blood-glucose levels over ​time.
• About 62% of patients achieved HbA1c levels below 5.7%, bringing their blood ‌sugar ⁠levels into the non-diabetic range, the company said.
• About 2% of patients in the 447-patient study taking enicepatide discontinued treatment due to side effects, compared with none in the placebo group, it ​added.
• Most gastrointestinal ​side effects, which ⁠are common with the class of medications, were mild to moderate, the company said.
• Roche is ​betting on next-generation treatments in a market expected ​to ⁠exceed $100 billion annually within the next decade.
• In a mid-stage trial reported in June, enicepatide helped overweight or obese patients without diabetes ⁠lose 22.7% ​of their body weight.
• Roche said it ​plans to start late-stage glycemic-control and cardiovascular outcomes studies in the first half ​of 2027.