By Billy Gray
Roche plans to move one of its weight-loss treatment candidates to late-stage trials next year, as the Swiss pharmaceutical group aims to become a top-three player in the booming market.
The group said Monday that the experimental drug, called CT-388, showed strong efficacy in early-stage studies and that mid-stage trials were under way. A late-stage, or phase 3, study is set to begin in the first half of 2026, it said.
Roche's aim is to become a strong entrant in the weight-loss market before 2030 and eventually a top-three competitor in the field, the head of the group's pharmaceuticals business, Teresa Graham, said at a company event with investors in London.
U.S.-based Eli Lilly and Denmark's Novo Nordisk currently dominate the market, with other companies such as Amgen and AstraZeneca trying to catch up. Pfizer on Monday agreed to buy weight-loss drug developer Metsera for up to $7.3 billion in a bid to get back into the burgeoning market.
CT-388 is a medication injected weekly that, like Lilly's Mounjaro and Zepbound drugs currently on the market, activates both glucagon-like peptide 1, or GLP-1, hormones and a second class of hormones to help suppress appetite and shed weight.
Roche said the drug stands out by more precisely activating appetite- and metabolism-related pathways while avoiding those linked to side effects such as nausea and vomiting. Phase 1 results showed participants lost an average 18.8% of their body weight over 24 weeks.
Graham spoke at the event of the unprecedented size and scale of the obesity drug market and the vast and fragmented unmet needs within it. Key treatment needs include tolerability, long-term weight maintenance, and administration methods. Graham also said that Roche's existing portfolio is uniquely suited to treat overweight and obese people with one or more comorbidities, which comprise 70% of patients.
Write to Billy Gray at william.gray@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 22, 2025 08:36 ET (12:36 GMT)
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