Pfizer Stock Rises as Company Advances Studies of Once-a-Day Weight-Loss Pill

Shares of Pfizer (PFE) precocious arsenic nan supplier shaper announced that it was moving guardant pinch investigation into a imaginable once-a-day weight-loss pill.

The institution said that pursuing tests into nan modified merchandise formulation for its drug, danuglipron, it has chosen 1 for dose optimization studies this year. Pfizer added that it will beryllium “evaluating aggregate doses of nan preferred modified merchandise formulation to pass nan registration enabling studies.”

Danuglipron contains nan aforesaid GLP-1 receptor agonists recovered successful Novo Nordisk’s (NVO) Ozempic and Wegovy, and Eli Lilly’s (LLY) Mounjaro obesity medicines. However, those are injectables, and pharmaceutical companies person been successful a title to find a measurement to get nan aforesaid consequence successful an oral treatment.

In December, Pfizer suspended testing of a twice-daily dosage of danuglipron aft a Phase-2b proceedings showed that while effective successful reducing weight, it had a precocious incident of adverse broadside effects. The institution said past that it would attraction alternatively connected a once-a-day pill.

Dr. Mikael Dolsten, main technological serviceman and president of Pfizer Research and Development, said that based connected nan earlier results and this caller data, “we judge that pinch nan preferred modified merchandise formulation and early proceedings creation optimization, we tin beforehand a competitory oral GLP-1 molecule into registration enabling studies.”

Pfizer shares were up 1.6% astatine $28.80 successful early-afternoon trading Thursday. If nan banal holds these gains, it would beryllium backmost into affirmative territory for nan year.