Metabolic Disorders

Antag CEO Joerg Moeller talked to In Vivo about the young company’s gilded roots, and how its GIP receptor antagonist asset will differentiate in the crowded obesity market.

The weight management drug, Mysimba, continues to demonstrate a positive benefit-risk balance but the data available are not sufficient to fully determine the cardiovascular safety beyond 12 months. Meanwhile, Currax this month announced the publication of a peer-reviewed study of Mysimba that followed patients for over 4.7 years and found no evidence of excess cardiovascular risk.

The Swiss giant has inked a deal potentially worth $5.30bn with Zealand to access the Danish biotech's long-acting amylin analog petrelintide.

Novo is making Wegovy available through a new direct-to-patient delivery option for individuals paying out of pocket for the obesity drug as the potential end of semaglutide compounding nears.

AbbVie is the latest big pharma to buy into the obesity space, licensing an amylin analog from Gubra for $350m up front, while Novo will pursue cardiometabolic targets with Gensaic’s AI-based platform.

The European Medicines Agency is considering whether apitegromab, brensocatib and diazoxide choline, from Scholar, Insmed and Soleno respectively, are drugs that are of potential major public health interest, particularly from the point of view of therapeutic innovation.

Amylin analogs could well match the weight loss seen with Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly’s GLP-1-based blockbusters with less fewer tolerability issues. The Danish company believes petrelintide will lead the pack and is vetting potential big pharma partners very carefully.

Recent court cases initiated by the Swiss medicines regulator against “unbalanced” media reporting on GLP-1 drugs for weight loss highlights its zero tolerance for any form of misinformation that compromises patient safety.

GSK’s depemokimab, if approved, could become the first ultra-long-acting drug for treating asthma and chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps. Meanwhile, Sanofi’s teplizumab, which the US approved as the first disease-modifying therapy for type 1 diabetes in 2022, has now been filed for review by the European Medicines Agency.

Amgen saw revenue rise 19% to $33.4bn in 2024 and said revenue should grow to $34.3bn-$35.7bn in 2025 despite losing exclusivity for its biggest franchise – Prolia and Xgeva (denosumab) – this year.