The AMGEN logo is displayed outside the AMGEN headquarters in Thousand Oaks, California, May 17, 2023.
Mario Tama | Getty images
Amgen On Wednesday, said it launched two critical trials at an advanced stage for her experimental maritid on the injection of weight loss, another stage of her attempt to enter the booming market of medicines on obesity.
“We are delighted to share that these trials have now been launched, and really, the progress of the maritime program takes place very, very well,” said Dr. Jay Bradner, executive vice-president of AMGEN’s research and development, at a TD Cowen conference, using the name of the phase three development program.
Maritide is a monthly injection that investors hope to compete with existing weight loss drugs from Novo Nordisk And Eli Lillywhich are weekly injectables. They are part of a class of drugs called GLP-1, which imitate certain hormones produced in the intestine to buffer appetite and regulate blood sugar.
About 6% of American adults, or more than 15 million people, used a prescription for GLP-1 in May, according to a survey of the organization of the KFF health policy. Some analysts expect the GLP-1 market worth more than $ 150 billion a year in the early 2030s.
One of the new phase three trials is to examine AMGEN’s medication in around 3,500 people with obesity or overweight without type 2 diabetes, said Bradner. The second study examines marititide in 999 obese or overweight patients and suffer from type 2 diabetes
The main objective of the two studies is to measure the percentage of weight loss at 72 weeks. AMGEN will study three target doses of maritid and plans to use a dose climb, or to start patients at a lower dose of the drug and to increase this quantity over time. The company has not shared a specific diet for the dosage in the tests.
Amgen in November said that Maritide had helped patients with obesity to lose up to 20% of their weight on average after one year in a two -phase test, without weight loss platter. The drug also helped patients with obesity and type 2 diabetes lost up to 17% of their weight after a year without a tray. But the results were at the lower end of the high expectations of Wall Street for the medication.
Amgen will report more data on the maritide this year. The complete results of the phase two test will be presented at the Conference of the American Diabetes Association in June. The company also continues to study patients in an extension of this test which will be read in the second half of this year.
Maritide brings a new approach to weight loss compared to existing drugs on the market because it is a known conjugate of peptide antibodies, which refers to a monoclonal antibody linked to two peptides. Peptides activate the receptors of an intestinal hormone called GLP-1, while the antibody blocks the receptors of another hormone called GIP.
This is different from Eli Lilly’s obesity drug, Zepbound, who activates GIP and GLP-1. Wegovy de Novo Nordisk Active GLP-1 but does not target GIP, which can also affect the way the body breaks down sugar and fat.