Novo Nordisk and its Chinese partner have reported up to 19.7% weight loss in patients who took their triple agonist for 24 weeks, illuminating a potential path forward for the Danish drugmaker as it tries to recover from yesterday’s CagriSema failure.
BMO Capital Markets analysts said in a note to investors after the CagriSema failure that Novo “needs a higher-efficacy answer to both Zepbound and retatrutide,” a pair of Eli Lilly assets. The next day, Novo shared data on one of its attempts to provide an answer, the triple G agonist UBT251. Yet shares in Novo opened down almost 3% in Denmark, adding to the losses triggered yesterday by the CagriSema setback.
United Laboratories sold Novo ex-China rights to UBT251, a triple agonist of the receptors for GLP-1, GIP and glucagon, for $200 million upfront last year. At the time, United Laboratories had linked the candidate to 15% weight loss after 12 weeks of dosing in a phase 1b trial. This morning, the Chinese biotech shared (PDF) 24-week data from a phase 2 study with investors.
Patients took one of three doses of UBT251 once a week in the trial. From a baseline mean of 92.2 kg, participants in the study lost up to 19.7% of their body weight after 24 weeks. In comparison, subjects on placebo lost 2% of their body weight.
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The data compare favorably to the weight loss seen with Lilly’s Zepbound—the market-leading obesity drug that yesterday added Novo’s CagriSema to its list of victims—with the caveat that such cross-trial comparisons can be unreliable.
Participants in a phase 3 study lost up to 20.9% of their body weight on Lilly’s drug, but it took them 72 weeks to shed those pounds. Weight loss typically continues to deepen beyond the 24-week cutoff for the UBT251 trial, suggesting Novo would go past the result achieved by Zepbound in a longer trial. Novo and United Laboratories’ releases lack comments about whether weight loss had plateaued.
One problem for Novo is Lilly has a near-approval drug candidate that also seems to drive deeper weight loss than Zepbound. The candidate, retatrutide, hits the same three targets as UBT251. In a phase 3 trial, patients lost 28.7% of their body weight after taking retatrutide for 68 weeks. Retatrutide could limit the opportunity for Lilly’s rivals to win market share by causing more weight loss than its treatments.
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It is unclear from the phase 2 data whether UBT251 has an edge in other areas. The partners reported statistically significant improvements in waist circumference, blood glucose, blood pressure and lipids, and said UBT251 appeared to have a safe and well-tolerated profile. However, United Laboratories is holding detailed data back for an upcoming medical congress.
Novo recently began a phase 2 trial of UBT251 at sites in North America. While Novo’s trial is focused on weight loss, United Laboratories’ R&D program in China covers chronic kidney disease, diabetes and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis. United Laboratories aims (PDF) to launch UBT251 in obesity in 2028, with other indications following in 2029 and beyond.