AZD6234

SAN ANTONIO — Well behind Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly in the obesity race, AstraZeneca came to this year’s ObesityWeek with three assets in hand as it hopes to “move beyond short-term weight loss” and attack one of the world’s biggest public health issues with a broad approach. The British pharma has an oral GLP-1 receptor agonist from Eccogene that just entered two Phase 2b trials; a long-acting amylin drug also in Phase 2b; and a combination of the long-acting amylin and a GLP-1/glucagon dual agonist that is set to enter Phase 2b within the next six months. “When we think about how we’re playing in this space, this is AstraZeneca — and we play to win,” Sharon Barr, EVP of BioPharmaceuticals R&D, said Monday morning during a media call. “If we didn’t think we had a highly competitive molecule, we would not be further investing in that molecule and moving it forward rapidly through clinical development.” The drugs each have $5 billion or more in peak sales opportunities, the company previously said . And AstraZeneca’s bold “ new era of growth ” by 2030 hinges in part on their success. The drugmaker on Monday revealed the first data for its once-daily oral GLP-1. It said the average weight loss was 5.8% at four weeks for patients with type 2 diabetes who were taking AZD5004 in a Phase 1 trial. Barr emphasized that the study’s participants had type 2 diabetes, and the oral small molecule “could have a differential effect on weight loss” in obesity trials. There were no serious adverse events, Barr said. On Sunday evening, Viking Therapeutics presented its own Phase 1 weight loss data for its oral GLP-1/GIP dual agonist. Those results, showing up to 6.8% placebo-adjusted weight loss in patients without type 2 diabetes, appear to put the drug at or near the front of the pack of companies developing oral GLP-1s. AZD5004, which was licensed from Eccogene last fall for $185 million upfront , entered two Phase 2b trials this fall for obesity or overweight and type 2 diabetes . The 26-week studies in obesity and type 2 diabetes are expected to wrap up at the end of 2025 and early 2026, respectively, Barr said. Barr noted two potential differentiators for AZD5004. It can be taken with or without food, and it could be paired up with AstraZeneca’s SGLT2 inhibitor Farxiga in type 2 diabetes, chronic kidney disease and heart failure, and its oral PCSK9 inhibitor called AZD0780 in dyslipidemia. Meanwhile, AstraZeneca said its early-stage long-acting amylin called AZD6234 could be an “alternative solution” for patients who can’t tolerate GLP-1s. It may also help tamp down on the muscle loss that patients experience when on Novo’s Wegovy and Lilly’s Zepbound. The Phase 1 trial showed AZD6234 had a “good tolerability profile, with no safety concerns at any of the doses,” according to Regina Fritsche-Danielson, SVP of early cardiovascular and metabolic work, on the media call. There was “encouraging weight loss” and “significant decreases in body weight compared to placebo at all doses studied,” she added. A handful of companies, including Novo, Lilly and Zealand Pharma, are also developing amylin drugs. Everyone in the field awaits the Phase 3 readout of Novo’s CagriSema, which is slated before the end of this year. Even more ambitions in obesity AstraZeneca is “not stopping there,” Barr told reporters. The drugmaker has the option to buy preclinical activin-focused biotech SixPeaks Bio. And it also has a “rich and diverse” discovery pipeline, Barr said, but the drugmaker is being coy about sharing anything on those programs as the field latches onto every nugget of information about new obesity mechanisms. AstraZeneca is also looking externally for other molecules it could bring into the fold, Barr said.