Maridebart Cafraglutide

Antag Therapeutics, a seven-year-old Danish startup investigating a hotly debated approach to treating obesity, has raised 80 million euros, or about $84 million, to advance its first weight loss drug into clinical testing.Announced Wednesday, the Series A round will support dosing studies of Antags lead experimental drug, AT-7687, along with combination trials involving Novo Nordisks obesity treatment Wegovy, CEO Alexander Hovard Sparre-Ulrich said in an interview.Versant Ventures led the round and was joined by Novo Holdings, which provided seed investment, SR One, Pictet, entities associated with KKR and Broadview Ventures, and the Export and Investment Fund of Denmark.The round is Versants third investment in an obesity-focused company this year, following the firms funding of Pep2Tango Therapeutics and SixPeaks Bio.Antag is studying inhibition of a gut hormone called GIP, which along with the more well-known GLP-1 guides post-meal metabolism and serves as a regulator of blood sugar, energy balance and lipid levels. The companys science is built upon the research of its cofounders, University of Copenhagen professors Jens Holst, credited as a co-discoverer of GLP-1, and Mette Rosenkilde, who together identified a GIP antagonist produced by the body.GIP is one of the two targets of Eli Lillys obesity drug Zepbound. However, Zepbound activates GIP, while AT-7607, a weekly injection, blocks it. Which approach is best is still up for debate, as evidence supports both. Some scientists have hypothesized GIP stimulation is effective because it desensitizes the protein on pancreatic cells that receives the hormone, effectively deactivating the protein the same way a drug that blocks it would.Combining a GIP-targeting agent with GLP-1 appears to be a better approach than GLP-1 alone. On Wednesday, Lilly announced summary results of its SURMOUNT-5 trial, showing that people who took Zepbound lost more weight than those who took Wegovy.While drug developers and biotech investors have been watching Zepbound, theyve also been monitoring a potential competitor in Amgens maridebart cafraglutide, or MariTide, which has GIP-blocking component as well as a GLP-1 targeting one. MariTide helped people with obesity lose up to 20% of their body weight over a year in a Phase 2 trial, which fell just shy of investors high expectations.Versant Ventures Managing Director Alex MaywegPermission granted by Antag TherapeuticsAt the top line, you do see very nicely the [GIP] effects that make the profile look different than a GLP-1 alone, said Alex Mayweg, managing director at Versant and an Antag board member, of the MariTide data.As a GIP-blocking peptide mimicking one created by the body, AT-7607 may have fewer side effects like nausea and vomiting that are common with currently marketed drugs.We see great cardiometabolic effects, but we don't have the tolerability issue that we need to think about as we [dose]. So that really gives us flexibility in combining with both current and future therapies, Sparre-Ulrich said.While AT-7607 trails many experimental obesity drugs, Mayweg believes theres room for several agents in a market that could include many tens of millions of people seeking treatment, some of whom will self-pay for drugs.The impact of the GLP-1 [drugs] has been phenomenal. But we're also seeing a couple of aspects where you can do better, such as tolerability or lean mass preservation, he said. That really requires additional mechanisms that are validated. We believe that [GIP] is particularly interesting given that it is anchored in human genetics to inhibit it. '

The battle for market share between the two leaders in the booming obesity drug sector has a new data point decidedly in favor of Eli Lilly. The Lilly drug Zepbound has topped Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy in a head-to-head clinical trial. According to the preliminary Phase 3b results, treatment with Zepbound led to 47% greater relative weight loss compared to Wegovy, Lilly announced Wednesday. The pharmaceutical giant said more details will be published and presented at a medical meeting next year. But these results provide evidence that a drug that hits two metabolic targets leads to greater reduction in weight, which could give Lilly an edge as it seeks gains in market share and insurance coverage of the blockbuster product. Zepbound’s main ingredient is a peptide engineered to bind to and activate two targets, the GLP-1 and GIP receptors. By contrast, Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy targets only the GLP-1 receptor. Both drugs are administered as once-weekly injections. Health IT Reducing Clinical and Staff Burnout with AI Automation As technology advances, AI-powered tools will increasingly reduce the administrative burdens on healthcare providers. By Dr. Michael Blackman, Chief Medical Officer at Greenway Health The head-to-head test enrolled 751 people in the U.S. and Puerto Rico with obesity or overweight as well as certain associated comorbidities, such as hypertension and cardiovascular disease. However, the study specifically excluded those who have type 2 diabetes. Participants were randomly assigned to receive Zepbound or Wegovy for 72 weeks. The main goal was to measure the percent change in body weight from baseline. Participants in the Zepbound cohort showed an average 20.2% loss in body weight, Lilly said. That translates to an average 22.8 kg (50.3 pounds) of weight shed. By comparison, those who received Wegovy lost an average 13.7% of their weight, or 15 kg (33.1 pounds). On a key secondary endpoint, Lilly said 31.6% of participants receiving Zepbound achieved at least 25% body weight loss. In the Wegovy arm, 16.1% of participants achieved that mark. “Given the increased interest around obesity medications, we conducted this study to help health care providers and patients make informed decisions about treatment choice,” Leonard Glass, senior vice president of global medical affairs at Lilly Cardiometabolic Health, said in a prepared statement. Lilly said the overall safety profile of Zepbound in the head-to-head study was similar to previous tests of its drug. This entire class of drugs that mimic gut hormones comes with gastrointestinal side effects that lead some patients to discontinue treatment. The Phase 3 clinical trial results that supported Zepbound’s FDA approval last year showed side effects such as nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting. Lilly said Wednesday that the most commonly-reported adverse events in Zepbound’s Phase 3 program were gastrointestinal and were classified as mild to moderate in severity. presented by Market Trends to Watch for Health Systems and Their Specialty Pharmacies The future looks bright for the integrated specialty pharmacy model – for health systems, providers, and most importantly, for patients. By Jake Gaffey, MBA, Chief Strategy Officer at Shields Health Solutions Zepbound has fast become one of Lilly’s top products. In the nine months ended Sept. 30, Lilly reported more than $3 billion in Zepbound sales. The latest clinical trial results should help Zepbound gain market share over Wegovy, Leerink Partners analyst David Risinger said in a Wednesday note sent to investors. But he pointed out that Lilly did not disclose a comparison of the tolerability of these medications, which could be another point of differentiation beyond the magnitude of weight loss. A cross-trial comparison of historical data from independent Phase 3 tests of each medication showed better tolerability for Zepbound compared to Wegovy, with the Novo Nordisk product posting higher rates of nausea and vomiting, Risinger said. He added that he’s looking forward to the publication and presentation of the head-to-head data in 2025 for more details on this comparison. There are other companies developing weight loss drugs that target both GLP-1 and GIP. Viking Therapeutics has reached Phase 3 testing with VK2735, a once-weekly injectable medication designed to activate both the GLP-1 and GIP receptors. Viking could stand apart from the field with an oral version, which last month posted encouraging Phase 1 data. Amgen is also going after both GLP-1 and GIP with a drug called MariTide. But one key difference with Amgen’s drug is that rather than activating the GIP receptor, the peptide antibody conjugate blocks this target. Last week, Amgen reported preliminary Phase 2 results showing MariTide achieved weight loss comparable to Lilly’s Zepbound. Amgen aims to differentiate with once-monthly or even less frequent dosing. Lilly isn’t settling for just two targets. It’s R&D efforts include retatrutide, a peptide engineered to hit GLP-1, GIP, and a third target — the glucagon receptor. Last year, Lilly reported Phase 2 results showing this triple mechanism achieved greater weight reduction than GLP-1 and GIP activation. Results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Retatrutide’s late-stage clinical development includes tests underway in obesity and type 2 diabetes. Photo by Eli Lilly