Pfizer wants to participate in the boom in weight loss medications

Pfizer (PFE-1.54%) offered more details about its weight-loss drug pipeline during a call with investors on Tuesday after it released its Third quarter earnings report.

During the call, the pharmaceutical giant shared more information about its three weight loss drug candidates and where they are in the development cycle.

Pfizer joins several other pharmaceutical companies working to launch their own incretin weight loss drugs, first popularized by Ozempic, in an attempt to disrupt the weight loss duopoly currently held by Novo Nordisk (NVO-0.23%) and Eli Lilly (LLY+1.26%).

Incretin drugs are a class of diabetes and obesity medications that mimic hormones that regulate blood sugar and suppress appetite. Demand for these drugs has made Ozempic maker Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, maker of Mounjaro and Zepbound, the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. Morgan Stanley (MS+0.32%) Analysts expect the global market for GLP-1 to reach $105 billion by 2030.

In addition to Pfizer, Viking Therapeutics (VKTX-2.27%), RocheAnd AmgenThey are all currently developing weight loss drugs. Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly are also working on developing their own next-generation weight loss drugs.

Pfizer appears to focus primarily on incretin pills. Weight loss medications already on the market are administered as an injection once a week. But a pill could help current delivery bottlenecks and open the market to patients who are hesitant about taking injections.

Pfizer still expects to be the second pharmaceutical company to bring a weight-loss pill to market

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla told analysts that the company still expects its lead weight-loss drug candidate, danuglipron, to be the second incretin weight-loss pill to hit the market.

“If [danuglipron] is moving quickly, based on what we know now, we should be the second Oral to come to market, assuming the first one is successful and the others don't come before us,” Bourla said. “But so far the situation looks like this. So there is no doubt that if we are successful, we will have a sizeable market share in the oral segment.”

Pfizer announced this in July We are advancing the development of danugliprona pill that mimics the gut hormone GLP-1. This is the same hormone that is stimulated by drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy.

In December, the pharmaceutical giant said a twice-daily version of the pill helped patients in an early study lose an average of 8 to 13% of their weight. However, due to the high rate of side effects, the company decided not to test this formulation at an advanced stage.

Instead, the company tested modified versions of the drug and selected one to proceed with clinical trials testing different dosages of the pill.

Bourla said more details on this new process will be announced in early 2025.

The company also highlighted its other weight loss drug candidates

Bourla also said the company is testing at least two other weight-loss pills in early clinical trials.

One of these is the once-daily GLP-1 pill, which is currently in a phase 1 trial. The other, a pill that blocks the gut hormone GIP, is expected to move into a Phase 2 trial later this year. Mikael Dolsten, Pfizer's chief scientific officer, said on the call that this pill, with a different mechanism for weight loss, could potentially offer “better tolerability and greater effectiveness.”

An experimental pill from Amgen (AMGN-0.42%), MariTide, works in part by blocking GIP while stimulating GLP-1.

An early study of MariTide found that users of the drug lost weight on average 14.5% of her weight in about 12 weeks.