Now instead of injections, pills...Global pharmaceutical company competition to develop oral GLP1 obesity drug
Dec 19, 2024
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Demand for Novo Nordisk's Ozempic, Hugo Bee, and Eli Lilly's Mountaineer and Jebbound has exploded, causing supply shortages.
However, it is clear that existing obesity treatments released as injections have low convenience. There is a strong need for increasing the dosage cycle from once a week to once a month or more, and changing the formulation from a subcutaneous injection formulation to an oral formulation.
As a result, global pharmaceutical companies are also accelerating the development of oral treatments.
Novonodisk is known to be undergoing phase 3 clinical trials of an oral preparation of semaglutide, the main component of gastric emptying. It is considered to have the highest chance of success.
Eli Lilly, a U.S. company with Hugobee's competitor 'Jebbound (component name Tirzepatide)', is also undergoing phase 3 clinical trials with the goal of launching it in 2026.
Pfizer has also resumed the development of GLP-1-based oral obesity treatments, which were suspended due to side effects, and Roche is also in the process of developing them.
Merck, a multinational pharmaceutical company based in the U.S., announced on the 18th (local time) that it has signed a license agreement worth up to $2 billion (about 2.9 trillion won) with China's Hanso Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. and secured the rights to the oral GLP-1 new drug candidate (HS-10535). Earlier, AstraZeneca is also conducting clinical trials by securing the right to candidate substances from Chinese pharmaceutical company Ecogene.
Korean pharmaceutical companies are also in the midst of development. Daewoong Pharmaceutical has applied for a domestic patent by discovering candidates for oral obesity treatment that double-acting on GLP-1 receptors and GIP receptors, and Ildong Pharmaceutical is also conducting a follow-up study of the GLP-1 receptor agonist through its subsidiary, Unovia. D&D Pharmatech will release the results of its Phase 1 clinical trial of the oral GLP-1 pipeline DD02S in 2025.
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