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Shares of Structure Therapeutics rose greater than 30% on Friday after the biotech startup’s experimental obesity pill succeeded in a small early-stage trial.
The once-daily drug helped chubby or obese participants reduce as much as 10 kilos of weight on average after 4 weeks of treatment, in response to a release from the corporate. Structure said it plans to check its pill in two longer midstage trials as a treatment for diabetes and obesity.
Structure’s pill is a component of the identical class of medicine as Novo Nordisk‘s blockbuster diabetes drug Ozempic and weight reduction counterpart Wegovy.
Those treatments, generally known as GLP-1s, have soared in popularity this yr attributable to their ability to assist patients lose unwanted kilos. GLP-1s mimic a hormone produced within the gut to suppress an individual’s appetite.
Firms like Structure try to capitalize on the booming obesity drug industry, which analysts say may very well be a $100 billion global market by the tip of the last decade.
Structure’s pill could potentially compete with oral obesity drugs from Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk and Pfizer, which will not be approved within the U.S. yet. Analysts say the arrival of cheaper, more convenient pill versions of the GLP-1s could increase access for patients and expand the marketplace for obesity drugs.
Pills are easier to fabricate than injections, making them less prone to run into the availability shortages plaguing injectable drugs resembling Ozempic, Wegovy and Eli Lilly’s diabetes drug Mounjaro. Pills are also typically cheaper than injections, though it’s unclear if that will probably be the case with the obesity treatments.
Wegovy’s list price tops $1,300 per monthly package, and Ozempic’s is about $935. Novo Nordisk has a diabetes pill called Rybelsus, which has the identical list price as Ozempic for a monthly package of 30 tablets.