A new trial has revealed a weight-loss drug that can burn fat 5 times faster than the drug used to manufacture Ozempic and Wegovy to fight obesity.
It was found that obese and overweight patients who used the new injection once a week lost 14.7% of their body weight on average in just 13 weeks. For comparison, clinical trials of Ozempic and Wegovy found that patients lost the same amount of weight in just 68 weeks (5 times longer).
The interesting recent results have seen shares of the biotech company behind the drug, California-based Viking Pharmaceuticals, more than double, giving it a market value of $8.5 billion, with the company's share price more than quadrupling so far this year.
Viking Pharmaceuticals says its drug works by mimicking glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1), the same Ozempic hormone that makes patients feel full longer.
But the drug also mimics glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP), which can help slow the movement of food through the intestines, ensuring a person feels full for longer.
Viking revealed that patients experienced side effects after the trial, including nausea and vomiting, but said the cases were mild or moderate.
The new drug needs to pass phase three trials to evaluate its safety and effectiveness on a larger number of patients before this success can be confirmed.
After the third phase, it will be eligible for approval by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Notably, doctors wrote more than 9 million prescriptions for weight-loss drugs, including Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro, in the last three months of 2022, with companies racing to expand supply to meet demand.