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Promising Phase 2 obesity data for Novo’s diabetes drug

pharmafile | June 26, 2017 | News story | Research and Development, Sales and Marketing Novo Nordisk 

Novo Nordisk is hopeful about the prospects of its diabetes drug semaglutide as a treatment for obesity after it produced positive results in a Phase 2 trial of 957 participants.

Semaglutide was tested as a treatment to help patients with obesity to induce and maintain weight loss. Administered subcutaneously over 52 weeks, the GLP-1 drug produced a weight loss of up to 13.8%, or 17.8kg, after 52 weeks from an average baseline weight of 111kg and body mass index of 39. This was compared to a loss of just 2.3% via diet, exercise and placebo in absence of semaglutide.

During an interview earlier this year, Novo’s Chief Executive Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen said: “What will really open the obesity market is efficacy. You probably have to get toward 15% for the market to fully open up.”

With these new results, the company could be on to a potential winner in the field. Semaglutide is already being tested in diabetes types 1 and 2, and Novo Nordisk is hoping it can outperform its other obesity drug Saxenda.

“We are very excited about these strong results and the potential of semaglutide as a new treatment for people with obesity,” chief science officer Mads Krogsgaard Thomsen said in a statement. “We will now prepare the phase 3 programme with semaglutide to confirm these results. We expect the Phase 3 programme to begin in 2018.”

Matt Fellows

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