Headlines Shift from “Drop” to “Pop” on Danuglipron at Pfizer

Barely seven months ago, business reporters were telling us Pfizer had decided to “drop,” “stop,” “can,” or “pull the plug” on danuglipron – an oral small molecule for obesity. But as we pointed out at the time, they missed the real story. Pfizer was shifting its gears to focus on a once daily form of danuglipron – dropping only the twice daily form.

Now the news is that the once daily form is looking good for a full development program. The next step will be a dose ranging study to pick the right dose to move into pivotal clinical trials. With that news, Pfizer saw a nice three percent “pop” in its stock price.

Strategic Commitment

Mikael Dolsten is the Chief Scientific Officer and President of Pfizer Research and Development. Announcing this progress, he emphasized the strategic commitment Pfizer has made to obesity:

“Obesity is a key therapeutic area for Pfizer, and the company has a robust pipeline of three clinical and several preclinical candidates. The most advanced of them, danuglipron, has demonstrated good efficacy in a twice-daily formulation, and we believe a once-daily formulation has the potential to have a competitive profile in the oral GLP-1 space.

“Following a thorough analysis of our previous Phase 2b data and trial design, we believe that with the preferred modified release formulation and future trial design optimization, we can advance a competitive oral GLP-1 molecule into registration enabling studies, with the goal of addressing the present and persistent medical needs of people living with obesity.”

A Range of Dosing Possibilities

It’s now becoming clear that the options for obesity treatment will be expanding greatly. With that expansion we will see a broad range of dosing options. Already, weekly injections from a little pen are gaining popularity. But some people are more accustomed to taking a daily pill for a chronic condition. Danuglipron, orforglipron, or a range of other medicines in development will likely meet that need.

At the other end of the range is monthly or even less frequent dosing that Amgen and Novo Nordisk are pursuing. With such regimens, obesity treatment might start seeming more like occasional inoculations against the disease instead of a constant burden of pills and shots to take.

One thing is clear, though. Competition is coming and we expect it to benefit people living with obesity.

Click here for the announcement of progress from Pfizer, here, here, and here for further reporting. For more on danuglipron, click here.

Dramatic Architecture, painting by Lyubov Popova / WikiArt

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July 13, 2024