By Adria Calatayud


Roche Holding said an oral GLP-1 drug candidate for the treatment of people with obesity achieved positive results in an early-stage clinical trial, bolstering the company's efforts to enter the booming market after another drug showed weight-loss efficacy in May.

The Swiss pharmaceutical company is trying to get a slice of the market for drugs to treat obesity and diabetes currently dominated by Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly. It entered the race through its $3-billion-plus purchase of Carmot Therapeutics, which gave Roche access to both oral and injectable drug candidates.

Roche said one of the experimental drugs it acquired through the Carmot deal--called CT-996 and being developed to treat both type 2 diabetes and obesity--showed clinically meaningful weight loss after four weeks of treatment in a phase 1 study.

The safety and tolerability profile of the drug was consistent with other oral drugs of the same class and no unexpected safety signals were observed, the company said.

The results of the trial show that the once-daily drug could potentially be dosed without regard to meal timing, Roche said.

The drug could eventually help patients both lose weight and for chronic weight-management maintenance, Roche's Chief Medical Officer and Head of Global Product Development Levi Garraway said.

This is Roche's second experimental obesity drug to achieve positive results in an early-stage trial. In May, the company said another drug candidate, CT-388, demonstrated efficacy in a Phase 1 study, by leading to significant weight loss in healthy adults with obesity compared to placebo.


Write to Adria Calatayud at adria.calatayud@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

07-17-24 0234ET