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Novo Nordisk said it was cutting supply of some doses of the popular obesity drug in the United States as it struggles to keep up with soaring demand.
Liselotte Saprow | Afp | Getty Images
Novo NordiskAn experimental high-dose obesity pill helped overweight or obese adults lose about 15% of their body weight, according to a new study. Late-stage clinical trial results.
The Danish company provided the data in a Diabetes Conference Sunday. Novo Nordisk to Reuters It plans to apply for FDA approval of the drug later this year.
Novo Nordisk struggles to maintain its dominant position in the burgeoning weight loss drug market as new competitors Eli Lilly And Pfizer Develop their own effective therapies.
Novo Nordisk is an oral version of semaglutide, the active ingredient in the company’s popular weight loss injections Ozempic and Wegovy. Semaglutide mimics a hormone produced in the gut called GLP-1, which sends signals to the brain when a person is full.
Novo Nordisk already has FDA-approved oral semaglutide, which is marketed under the brand name Repelsus to treat type 2 diabetes. But Rybelsus’ highest dose is 14 milligrams, while the company’s experimental obesity pill has a much larger dose of 50 milligrams.
The Phase 3 trial followed 667 obese, overweight adults who did not have type 2 diabetes.
Patients who took a 50-milligram pill once a day for 68 weeks saw an average weight loss of 15.1%, when they used it along with diet and physical activity, according to Novo Nordisk. This compared to 2.4% for patients who took a placebo.
About 85% of the patients who took the pill lost at least 5% of their body weight, while only 26% of those who took the placebo lost that.
Losing weight also led to “improvements in physical functioning, allowing participants to improve quality of life for daily activities,” said Dr. Philip Knopesaid a professor of endocrinology at the University of Copenhagen who worked on the study, in a statement.
New data suggests that the higher-dose birth control pill may be as effective as Novo Nordisk’s weekly Wegovy injection, which has also resulted in nearly 15% weight loss After 68 weeks.
But the pill would be a much more appropriate way to treat obesity.
Offering the pill to the public, Knopp said, “will allow people who are struggling to lose weight through diet and physical activity alone to take this potent drug in the way that best suits them.”
Other companies are also developing oral weight loss therapies to appeal to those who don’t want weekly injections.
Overweight or obese patients who took Eli Lilly’s experimental pill orforglipron lost 14.7% of their body weight after 36 weeks, according to mid-stage clinical trial results released by the company Friday.
Pfizer is also developing its own weight loss pill called danuglipron, which patients take twice daily.
But the pharmaceutical giant said on Monday it would stop developing Its other experimental oral drug, lotiglipron, is due to elevated liver enzymes in patients.
Companies have begun to focus more on the weight loss industry after Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy catapulted them into the national spotlight in recent years.
Social media influencers, Hollywood celebrities and even a tech billionaire Elon Musk The popular injections were reportedly used to get rid of unwanted weight.
This popularity has led to widespread shortages and an increase in cheaper imitations.
Shortages and other factors such as high out-of-pocket costs without insurance or unpleasant side effects have forced some people to stop taking Ozempic or Wegovy. They have many users complained Uncontrollable weight bounce.
More than two out of five adults are obese, according to National Institutes of Health. About one in 11 adults is obese.
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