{"id":97808,"date":"2025-08-19T15:29:20","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T15:29:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/pharma-giants-compete-to-release-the-first-weight-loss-pill-the-express-tribune\/"},"modified":"2025-08-19T15:29:20","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T15:29:20","slug":"pharma-giants-compete-to-release-the-first-weight-loss-pill-the-express-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/pharma-giants-compete-to-release-the-first-weight-loss-pill-the-express-tribune\/","title":{"rendered":"Pharma giants compete to release the first weight-loss pill | The Express Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Makers of weight-loss drugs are expected to rake in more than $150 billion in revenue by the early 2030s, thanks to the ever-growing popularity of Eli Lilly\u2019s Zepbound and Novo Nordisk’s \u00a0Wegovy.<\/p>\n

The GLP-1 drugs sold by both companies are weekly injections, although several drugmakers are racing to develop an oral medicine or pill that might prove to be as effective as the injectables.<\/p>\n

August 19 – Makers of weight-loss drugs are expected to rake in more than $150 billion in revenue by the early 2030s, thanks to the ever-growing popularity of Eli Lilly’s\u00a0 Zepbound and Novo Nordisk’s\u00a0 Wegovy.<\/p>\n

The GLP-1 drugs sold by both companies are weekly injections, although several drugmakers are racing to develop an oral medicine or pill that might prove to be as effective as the injectables.<\/p>\n

Pills are easier to manufacture and could also avoid some of the supply issues that were initially seen with Novo and Lilly’s drugs.<\/p>\n

Here are some companies developing oral obesity drugs in the hopes of making their mark in a lucrative market:<\/p>\n

Eli Lilly<\/strong><\/p>\n

Orforglipron, the company’s once-daily oral non-peptide GLP-1 agonist, helped patients shed 12.4% of body weight over 72 weeks at the highest dose in a late-stage trial. Lilly plans to file for regulatory approval by the end of 2025 and is preparing for global submissions and manufacturing scale-up.<\/p>\n

Novo Nordisk<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oral semaglutide, a pill version of the company’s injectable GLP-1 active ingredient, demonstrated about 15% weight loss in a late-stage trial.<\/p>\n

The drug is currently under regulatory review, with a U.S. FDA decision expected in late 2025. Novo is also exploring next-generation oral combinations.<\/p>\n

Structure therapeutics<\/strong><\/p>\n

Structure Therapeutics is developing GSBR-1290, a non-peptide oral GLP-1 agonist. Last year, the drug helped reduce weight by 6.2% on average at the end of 12 weeks in a mid-stage study. It is expected to report results from another mid-stage trial in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n

Merck<\/strong><\/p>\n

The company, in partnership with Hansoh Pharma, is preparing to test HS-10535, an oral small-molecule GLP-1 agonist, in early-stage trials. The drug is currently being tested in lab studies.<\/p>\n

Astrazeneca<\/strong><\/p>\n

AstraZeneca and Eccogene are advancing ECC5004, a once-daily GLP-1 receptor agonist pill. Early stage trial showed a promising weight-loss signal and a favorable safety profile, with mid stage trials planned under AstraZeneca’s lead.<\/p>\n

Researchers in London have developed a dental treatment using keratin, a protein found in hair, skin, and wool, that they say can repair damaged tooth enamel.<\/p>\n

Roche<\/strong><\/p>\n

Roche, following its acquisition of Carmot Therapeutics, is working on CT-966, an oral GLP-1 agonist. CT-966 resulted in a placebo-adjusted average weight loss of 6.1% within four weeks in obese patients without diabetes in an early-stage trial last year.<\/p>\n

Viking therapeutics <\/strong><\/p>\n

The company is developing an oral formulation of VK2735, which targets both GLP-1 and GIP hormones that regulate the body’s metabolism.<\/p>\n

In a mid-stage study of 280 overweight adults with at least one obesity-related comorbidity, the pill achieved up to 12.2% mean weight loss over 13 weeks, compared with placebo.<\/p>\n

Pfizer <\/strong><\/p>\n

Pfizer was developing danuglipron, initially as a twice-daily oral GLP-1 agonist, but scrapped development after data from a mid-stage trial showed poor tolerability. A once-daily extended-release version was later tested in about 1,400 patients but liver safety concerns remained, dampening the company’s plans to enter the obesity drug market.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Makers of weight-loss drugs are expected to rake in more than $150 billion in revenue by the early 2030s, thanks to the ever-growing popularity of Eli Lilly\u2019s Zepbound and Novo Nordisk’s \u00a0Wegovy. The GLP-1 drugs sold by both companies are weekly injections, although several drugmakers are racing to develop an oral medicine or pill that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":97809,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.tribune.com.pk\/media\/images\/novo-ezgif-com-avif-to-jpg-converter1755613383-0\/novo-ezgif-com-avif-to-jpg-converter1755613383-0-640x480.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}