Liselotte Sabroe | AFP | Getty Images
Latest NordiskAn experimental high-dose obesity pill helped obese or obese adults lose about 15% of their body weight. late phase clinical trial results.
The Danish company presented data at diabetes conference Sunday. Latest Nordisk he told Reuters plans to file for approval of the drug with the Food and Drug Administration later this yr.
Novo Nordisk struggles to maintain a dominant position in the booming market of slimming drugs as latest competitors comparable to Eli Lily AND Pfizer develop their very own effective treatment methods.
The Novo Nordisk pill is an oral version of semaglutide, the lively ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy’s blockbuster slimming injections. Semaglutide mimics a hormone produced in the gut called GLP-1, which signals the brain when an individual is full.
Novo Nordisk already has an FDA-approved oral semaglutide that is sold under the brand name Rybelsus for treating type 2 diabetes. But Rybelsus’ top dose is 14 milligrams, while the company’s experimental obesity pill has a much higher dose of fifty milligrams.
The third phase of the study included 667 obese and obese adults who didn’t have type 2 diabetes.
According to Novo Nordisk, patients who took a 50 milligram pill once a day for 68 weeks saw a mean weight loss of 15.1% when used along with weight loss program and exercise. This compares with a weight loss of two.4% in patients who took a placebo.
About 85% of the patients who took the pill lost a minimum of 5% of their body weight, while only 26% of the patients who took the placebo lost a minimum of 5%.
The weight loss also led to “improved physical functioning, enabling participants to have a greater quality of life in their every day activities,” says Dr. Filip Knopa professor of endocrinology at the University of Copenhagen who worked on the study said in a press release.
Latest data suggests that a high-dose pill could also be as effective as weekly injections of Wegovy Novo Nordisk, which also resulted in roughly 15% weight loss after 68 weeks.
But a pill can be a rather more convenient way to treat obesity.
Knop said offering the pill to the public “would allow individuals who struggle to lose weight with weight loss program and exercise alone to take this effective drug in the way that works best for them.”
Other corporations are also developing oral slimming treatments to appeal to those that don’t desire weekly injections.
Chubby or obese patients who took the experimental pill Eli Lilly or forglipron lost 14.7% of their body weight after 36 weeks, according to clinical trial results the company released on Friday.
Pfizer can also be developing its own slimming pill, called danugliprone, which patients take twice a day.
But the pharmaceutical giant on Monday said it might stop developing his other experimental oral drug, lotiglipron, due to elevated liver enzymes in patients.
Firms have begun to focus more on the weight loss industry after Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy have risen to national prominence in recent years.
Social media influencers, Hollywood stars and even a billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk reportedly used popular injections to eliminate unwanted kilos.
This popularity sparked widespread shortages and a rise in cheaper counterfeit drugs.
Shortages and other aspects comparable to high running costs without insurance or unpleasant uncomfortable side effects have forced some people to stop taking Ozempic or Wegova. Many users have he complained weight rebound that is difficult to control.
Greater than two in five adults are obese, according to National Institute of Health. About one in 11 adults is severely obese.