SAN FRANCISCO, Jan 12 (Reuters) – Amgen’s research chief said the company is very confident about its experimental obesity drug MariTide, as it prepares on Monday to unveil results from a mid-stage trial extension designed to show if the medication helps people maintain weight loss.
The company will announce the latest findings – as well as results from a Phase 2 trial of the once-monthly injection in diabetes patients – at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco.
“Other people are clamoring to develop once-monthly or less frequent dose medicines, and we are unambiguously in the lead there,” Jay Bradner, Amgen’s head of research and development, told Reuters on Monday.
Amgen said in June that MariTide helped overweight or obese patients shed up to 20% of their body weight in its 52-week Phase 2 study. Most patients, however, experienced gastrointestinal side effects like vomiting and the company said future trials would start with a much lower dose that would increase over time.
In the second part of the Phase 2 trial – aimed at assessing the drug’s potential as a maintenance therapy – patients who achieved 15% or more weight loss were re-randomized to receive different doses of MariTide or a placebo for another 52 weeks.
“We view the maintenance setting as the major valuation driver for MariTide,” BMO Capital Markets analyst Evan Seigerman said in a recent note.
Amgen’s drug is given as a monthly injection, but is also being tested in a quarterly dose. Current popular weight-loss drugs like Eli Lilly’s Zepbound and Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy are weekly injections.
Wegovy targets receptors for the appetite- and blood sugar-reducing hormone known as GLP-1, while Zepbound stimulates GLP-1 and a second gut hormone called GIP.
Amgen’s MariTide takes a different approach. It is an antibody linked to a pair of peptides that activates the GLP-1 receptor while simultaneously blocking the GIP receptor.
Amgen is currently conducting several Phase 3 trials of MariTide, including a 72-week study testing three different doses in obese or overweight adults.
(Reporting By Deena Beasley in Los Angeles and Michael Erman in San Francisco; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
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