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Stock Watch: GLP-1 Expectations Dashed

Pfizer’s Foray Into Obesity Slims Down As Tolerability Becomes The New Battleground

 
• By Andy Smith

If oral GLP-1 agonists are going to be successful in a wider weight loss indication, lower efficacy may be the trade-off for better tolerability in this bigger and more healthy population.

Andy Smith
ANDY SMITH OFFERS A LIFE SCIENCE INVESTOR'S PERSPECTIVE ON BIOPHARMA BUSINESS

The title of a note on Pfizer Inc.* by the analysts at J.P. Morgan in late November included the question “Where Is The Bottom?” – referring to its stock price. At that time, Pfizer’s stock price had fallen in the year to the end of November by over 40%. This compared with an 11-month gain of just over 2% for the NYSE Arca Pharmaceutical Index (DRG). Among the list of Pfizer’s key pipeline assets highlighted in the note was the oral GLP-1 agonist danuglipron where the J.P. Morgan analysts saw “a favorable risk/reward into ph2 data” as Pfizer attempted to encroach on Novo Nordisk A/Ss and Eli Lilly and Company’s market for GLP-1 agonists in diabetes and obesity.

Expectations for the Phase II study of danuglipron had been running high long before the licensing of another oral GLP-1 agonist in Phase I by AstraZeneca PLCearlier in the...

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