By Adria Calatayud and Dominic Chopping


Roche Holding said a new weight-loss pill under development achieved positive results in an early-stage clinical trial, bolstering the company's efforts to enter the booming obesity market after another of its drugs showed weight-loss efficacy in May.

The Swiss pharmaceutical company is trying to get a slice of the market for drugs to treat obesity and diabetes currently dominated by Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly. It entered the race through its $3 billion-plus purchase of Carmot Therapeutics, which gave Roche access to both oral and injectable drug candidates.

Roche said one of the experimental drugs it acquired through the Carmot deal--an orally administered drug called CT-996 which is being developed to treat both type 2 diabetes and obesity--showed clinically meaningful weight loss after four weeks of treatment in a Phase 1 study.

Although Phase 1 trials are only early-stage tests, the data are encouraging and suggest a competitive profile, Jefferies analysts said in a note to clients. More details and data from a wider patient population will likely be needed, while gastrointestinal side effects will also be scrutinized, they said.

Still, investors are keen to reward companies that show even early potential in an obesity market that analysts say could be worth well north of $100 billion in annual sales. The blockbuster success of Novo Nordisk's Wegovy weight-loss drug has seen demand far outstrip supply and sent the Danish firm's valuation soaring to become Europe's most valuable company with a stock market valuation above that of the GDP of Denmark.

Roche shares jumped as much as 6.6% in early European trade.

Like Novo Nordisk's Wegovy, CT-996 works by mimicking a gut hormone known as GLP-1 to control blood sugar and suppress appetite. The safety and tolerability profile of the drug was consistent with other oral drugs of the same class and no unexpected safety signals were observed, the company said.

The trial showed the once-daily drug helped patients lose 7.3% of their body weight within four weeks, versus weight loss of 1.2% in a placebo group, and results appeared unaffected by fasting or after high-fat meals, Roche said.

That compares with a late stage trial by Novo Nordisk of its high-dose oral semaglutide drug last year that showed weight loss of 15% after 68 weeks, but was achieved alongside diet and physical activity.

Meanwhile, a Phase 1 trial of Novo Nordisk's next generation amycretin weight-loss pill showed weight loss of around 13% after 12 weeks, better than the 6% weight loss patients experienced after 12 weeks in a trial of its blockbuster Wegovy drug.

Eli Lilly's orforglipron obesity pill has shown weight loss of 15% after 36 weeks in a Phase 2 trial, with late-stage data expected next year.

Roche's drug could help patients lose weight and control blood sugar, as well as potentially help to maintain weight following the administration of injectable obesity treatments, the company said.

This is Roche's second experimental obesity drug to achieve positive results in an early-stage trial. In May, the company said another drug candidate, CT-388, which is administered via an injection, demonstrated efficacy in a Phase 1 study, by leading to significant weight loss in healthy adults with obesity compared to placebo.


Write to Adria Calatayud at adria.calatayud@wsj.com and Dominic Chopping at dominic.chopping@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

07-17-24 0544ET