Why Pfizer flopped with its anti-obesity drug
Pfizer's mission to take part in the thriving weight loss drug market has failed again. The US pharmaceutical company has in fact interrupted the development of a potential pill due to an adverse event on a patient and, to catch up, could look at some acquisitions. All the details
After Novo Nordisk's boom with Ozempic and Wegovy, many pharmaceutical companies are trying to develop weight loss drugs. Among these, also Pfizer, which however has not yet managed to complete any of its trials due to side effects.
The latest stop came yesterday after detecting potential liver damage in a patient undergoing testing.
TRIAL INTERRUPTED
“After a review of the totality of information, including all clinical data generated to date for danuglipron [a weight loss pill] and recent input from regulatory authorities,” Pfizer said it decided to stop studying the molecule.
The choice also comes following a patient's demonstration of potential liver damage induced by the drug during the trial phase.
Although following the interruption of administration the adverse effect quickly resolved, the company still decided not to continue despite the fact that in the other 1,400 patients the overall frequency of liver enzyme elevations was in line with the already approved drugs of the class.
THE PREVIOUS STOP AND THE NEXT STEPS
The drugmaker was now testing multiple doses of a once-daily version of the oral drug, but by late 2023 it had stopped developing a twice-daily pill because most patients dropped out of the mid-stage study due to frequent nausea and vomiting, among other side effects.
Pfizer said it will continue development of its experimental oral drug that targets another hormone, GIPR, and other previous research from its obesity program.
PILLS OF THE FUTURE
The pill formulation of danuglipron could have represented a convenient alternative to Novo Nordisk's Wegovy and Ozempic injections, entering a sector that is estimated to reach a turnover of 150 billion dollars in the coming years.
In the next few days, Eli Lilly is also expected to announce the results of the phase 3 trial for its pill orforglipron.
THE REACTION OF THE STOCK MARKET AND THE COMMENT OF THE ANALYSTS
Pfizer's stock, however, despite the interruption of the development of danuglipron, gained 0.4% yesterday.
However, for Evan Seigerman , an analyst at BMO Capital Markets, the episode "sends the company back to the starting blocks as the other anti-obesity drugs are all in the early stages of clinical trials." According to Seigerman, Pfizer may now pursue a deal or partnership in the near term. Bloomberg also says the stop "increases the likelihood that the pharmaceutical company will spend billions on an acquisition to enter the weight loss drug market."
Shares of smaller developers of weight-loss treatments, such as Viking Therapeutics and Structure Therapeutics, also rose between 8% and 10% on the news. And those of Eli Lilly increased by 2.6%, while those of Novo Nordisk grew by more than 3%.
POSSIBLE ACQUISITIONS
In this context, Bloomberg recalls that Pfizer has set aside about $15 billion for deals in 2025 and executives have said that the company expects to play a role in the obesity market in the years to come.
So, for Seigerman, “he is likely to look for next-generation weight loss treatments, that is, another pill or an injectable drug that improves on the drugs approved by Lilly and Novo.” According to Bloomberg Intelligence analysts John Murphy and Michael Shah, Pfizer in fact “could turn to external innovation, as acquiring another GLP-1 pill – Viking, Structure and Terns are some options – could make strategic sense”.
"Could Pfizer acquire Viking or one of these other players? I think that's why [stocks] are up today," commented Jeff Jonas, portfolio manager at Gabelli Funds.
Viking has a market value of approximately $2.7 billion, while Structure has a market value of approximately $1.1 billion.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/sanita/perche-pfizer-ha-fatto-flop-col-farmaco-anti-obesita/ on Tue, 15 Apr 2025 13:36:19 +0000.