Another pharmaceutical giant, AbbVie, has decided to enter the obesity treatment landscape and has licensed Danish company Gubra’s obesity treatment, GUB014295.
AbbVie will pay $350 million upfront, with Gubra being eligible to receive up to $1.875 billion in milestone payments along with tiered royalties on global net sales. The agreement allows AbbVie to take lead on the global development and commercial activities for the drug.
Following the news, Gubra’s stock was up by over 21% in trading today. The company reported DKK 266 million ($37.15 million) in revenue last year.
Obesity landscape
Weight loss therapies have gained massive popularity in recent years. The field is currently dominated by Novo Nordisk’s glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) agonist, Wegovy (semaglutide), which along with the company’s other obesity drug Saxenda (liraglutide), raked in DKK65.1 billion ($9 billion) in sales last year.
Another large competitor in the obesity space is Eli Lilly’s dual GLP-1 and glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) receptor agonist Zepbound (tirzepatide), generating $4.9 billion in sales in 2024.
Multiple pharmaceutical companies have invested in developing and boosting their obesity pipelines. In November 2023, AstraZeneca signed a licensing agreement worth up to $2bn with Eccogene to develop and commercialise ECC5004, a small molecule GLP-1 agonist.
Last year, Roche reported positive results from the Phase Ib trial of its investigational obesity and type 2 diabetes therapy. The once-weekly subcutaneous dual GLP-1 and GIP receptor agonist achieved a placebo-adjusted mean weight loss of -6.1% within four weeks.
While most of the obesity treatment landscape is populated by GLP-1 agonists, some companies are developing drugs with alternative mechanisms of action. Novo Nordisk is developing a combination therapy, CargiSema, a combination of cagrilintide, a dual amylin and calcitonin receptor agonist, and semaglutide, a GLP-1 agonist. In December, the company reported data from a Phase III REDEFINE 1 trial showing that the therapy showed a 22.7% weight reduction at 68 weeks.
Zeland Pharma is developing a long-acting amylin analog, petrelintide, as a treatment for obesity. The company is currently enrolling obese or overweight participants in Phase 2b ZUPREME-1 trial (NCT06662539), with plans to start another Phase IIb ZUPREME-2 study in the first half of 2024. The ZUPREME-2 trial will evaluate petrelintide in overweight or obese participants with type 2 diabetes.
Gubra’s weight loss drug
GUB014295 is a potentially long-acting amylin analog that activates both amylin and calcitonin receptors. Amylin acts as a satiety hormone by signaling a ‘feeling of fullness’ to the brain that results in appetite suppression and the reduction of food intake. It also delays gastric emptying of foods.
The therapy is currently being evaluated in a Phase I trial (NCT06144684). In November 2024, Gubra reported positive results from the first part of the study. The healthy lean and overweight male participants receiving between 3.5 mg and 6.0 mg of GUB014295 achieved around 3% weight loss over six weeks compared with an approximate 1% gain in the placebo group.
Gubra has previously partnered with Boehringer Ingelheim to co-develop four obesity programs. However, in October 2024, Boehringer discontinued the development of one of the programs, BI 1820237, which targets neuropeptide Y receptor type 2. While the company did not disclose the reason for discontinuing the drug’s development, it is developing the other three candidates – two are in preclinical development, and the third, BI 3034701, entered Phase I (NCT06352437) testing in July 2024.
