(News Bulletin 247) – The Swiss pharmaceutical laboratory has announced positive data in a phase I clinical trial for its anti-obesity drug candidate. Roche is progressing on the Zurich Stock Exchange.

Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly have seen their stock market fortunes turned upside down by the rise of antidiabetic and especially anti-obesity drugs. The Danish group owns the flagship treatments Ozempic and Wegovy, while the American laboratory has in its ranks the antidiabetic Mounjaro as well as its version intended to treat obesity, Zepbound.

But other laboratories also want to capture this colossal market for obesity treatments. And with a little delay, Roche has entered the dance in order to bounce back after numerous setbacks in oncology or Alzheimer’s disease. According to the Swiss laboratory, some four billion people, or nearly half of the world’s population, are expected to be obese or overweight by 2035.

So at the end of 2023, the group paid $2.7 billion to acquire Carmot Therapeutics, an American laboratory specializing in the treatment of obesity. Roche therefore broke its piggy bank to get its hands on the portfolio of several treatments currently in clinical trials. Including CT-996, which is the subject of today’s announcement.

“Clinically significant” weight loss

Roche announced on Tuesday the success of a phase I clinical study (early phase of clinical trials) for CT-996, its molecule developed as a once-daily treatment for the treatment of type 2 diabetes and obesity.

The data showed that CT-996 treatment in obese participants without type 2 diabetes resulted in a “clinically meaningful” placebo-adjusted mean weight loss of -6.1% over four weeks. The group said full data from the study will be presented at an upcoming medical conference.

“Due to its good safety and tolerance profile, CT-996 could potentially be dosed without taking into account meal times,” Invest Securities said on Wednesday. “Indeed, the dosage of the product has proven to be constant in the blood, during fasting or after a heavy meal, which offers greater dosage flexibility to patients,” the research office added.

Finally, based on the study data, Roche suggests that CT-996 could be used as a treatment for glycemic control, to induce weight loss, but also potentially for weight maintenance after weight loss induced by injectables.

The Swiss pharmaceutical laboratory rose 6% on the Zurich Stock Exchange after publishing these preliminary results for its candidate treatment against obesity.

Alongside this, its direct competitors are losing ground on the stock market, even though Roche is still at an early stage of clinical trials. Eli Lily lost 2.2% on Wall Street, while the largest European market capitalisation, Novo Nordisk, fell by 4.1%. As for the latter, the stock could also suffer from the announcement by the Dutch health agency that it is advising against the reimbursement of Wegovy, according to Reuters.