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Altimmune on Wednesday mentioned its experimental drug helped sufferers shed weight but additionally minimized the lack of muscle mass in a midstage trial, a discovering that would set it aside in a doubtlessly crowded market.
Altimmune is one in all a number of smaller biotech corporations which might be pushing to compete immediately with Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly within the rising weight reduction drug area, or to get scooped up by bigger drugmakers that may assist carry their therapies to market.
The outcomes are an early signal that the biotech firm can deal with a significant concern round these therapies, which have drawn unrelenting demand and investor curiosity over the past 12 months.
Some well being specialists have mentioned that weight problems medication might shrink crucial muscle mass, which might elevate the chance of accidents and reduce power.
However in Altimmune’s late-stage trial, greater than 74% of the load that sufferers misplaced after taking the corporate’s weekly injection got here from fats tissue and solely 25.5% got here from lean mass, in response to the corporate. These outcomes are much like these typically seen with weight loss plan and train applications for weight reduction.
Sufferers who took a 2.4-milligram dose of Altimmune’s drug each week for 48 weeks misplaced 15.6% of their weight on common within the trial, with weight reduction persevering with on the finish of therapy, the corporate mentioned.
The corporate first introduced that weight reduction knowledge on the drug, referred to as pemvidutide, in November.
“Preservation of lean mass throughout weight reduction is crucial, since extreme lack of lean mass has been related to adverse outcomes, corresponding to [a gradual loss of muscle mass and strength] and bone fractures, particularly in ladies and the aged,” Altimmune Chief Medical Officer Scott Harris mentioned in a press release. “There’s a rising appreciation that the standard of weight reduction is as necessary as the amount of weight reduction.”
In a scientific trial on semaglutide, the energetic ingredient in Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy, researchers examined the lack of lean muscle mass in a subgroup of about 140 sufferers. On common, individuals misplaced about 15 kilos of lean muscle and 23 kilos of fats in the course of the 68-week trial.
These outcomes counsel the next fee of lean mass decline than in Altimmune’s trial. Nonetheless, Altimmune must conduct late-stage trials on its drug, so it is too early to say how a lot of an edge it has over present weight reduction therapies.
The 2 medication additionally work in a different way.
Semaglutide mimics a hormone produced within the intestine referred to as GLP-1 to suppress an individual’s urge for food. In the meantime, Altimmune’s drug prompts GLP-1 and one other intestine hormone referred to as glucagon, which will increase power expenditure.
Altimmune can be growing that drug to deal with a typical type of liver illness referred to as metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis, or MASH.
Different makers of weight problems medication are additionally making an attempt to assist sufferers keep muscle mass.
For instance, Eli Lilly is testing whether or not combining its weight reduction drug with a monoclonal antibody from Versanis Bio would possibly assist sufferers shed some pounds whereas preserving muscle mass. The pharmaceutical large not too long ago acquired Versanis, which is a part of a slate of corporations concentrating on the muscle-loss facet of weight reduction.
