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Altimmune on Wednesday said its experimental drug helped patients shed weight, but in addition minimized the loss of muscle mass in a mid-stage trial, a finding that would potentially set it apart in a potentially crowded market.
Altimmune is one in all several smaller biotech firms pushing to compete directly with Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly in the growing weight loss drug space, or get scooped up by larger drugmakers that may also help bring their treatments to market.
The outcomes are an early sign that the biotech company can address a serious concern around those treatments, which have drawn unrelenting demand and investor interest during the last 12 months.
Some health experts have said that obesity drugs could shrink critical muscle mass, which could raise the chance of injuries and reduce strength.
But greater than 74% of the weight that patients lost after taking Altimmune’s weekly injection got here from fat tissue in the late-stage trial. Meanwhile, only 25.5% got here from lean mass, in response to the corporate. Those results are just like those often seen with weight loss plan and exercise programs for weight loss.
On average, patients lost 15.6% of their weight after taking a 2.4-milligram dose of Altimmune’s medicine after 48 weeks in the trial, with weight loss continuing at the tip of treatment. The corporate first announced that weight loss data on the drug, called pemvidutide, in November.
“Preservation of lean mass during weight loss is critical, since excessive loss of lean mass has been related to negative outcomes, reminiscent of [a gradual loss of muscle mass and strength] and bone fractures, especially in women and the elderly,” said Altimmune Chief Medical Officer Scott Harris in a press release. “There may be a growing appreciation that the standard of weight loss is as essential as the amount of weight loss.”
In a clinical trial on semaglutide, the energetic ingredient in Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy, researchers examined the loss of lean muscle mass in a subgroup of about 140 patients. On average, participants lost about 15 kilos of lean muscle and 23 kilos of fat through the 68-week trial.
Those results suggest the next rate of lean mass decline than in Altimmune’s trial. Still, Altimmune must conduct late-stage trials on its drug, so it’s too early to say how much of an edge it has over existing weight loss treatments.
The 2 drugs also work otherwise.
Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide mimics a hormone produced in the gut called GLP-1 to suppress an individual’s appetite. Meanwhile, Altimmune’s drug prompts GLP-1 and one other gut hormone called glucagon, which increases energy expenditure.
Altimmune can be developing that drug to treat a standard type of liver disease called metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis, or MASH.
Other obesity drugmakers are also attempting to help patients maintain muscle mass.
For instance, Eli Lilly is testing whether combining its weight loss drug with a monoclonal antibody from Versanis Bio might help patients lose weight while preserving muscle mass. The pharmaceutical giant recently acquired Versanis, which is a component of a slate of firms targeting the muscle-loss aspect of weight loss.