New Delhi, Jan 12 (IANS): From once-weekly subcutaneously injectable medicines agonizing the glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor (GLP-1R), longer-acting candidates allowing once-monthly administration may become the next generation of obesity management drugs, according to a report.

The report by GlobalData, a data and analytics company, showed that anti-obesity medications are the industry trend that will have the greatest impact in the next 12 months.

The rising global obesity rates are creating a wave of investment into the obesity market, driving the development of possibly the next generation of obesity drugs. This includes discovering new mechanisms of action, developing oral candidates instead of injectables, and trying to decrease the burden on the patient by decreasing the frequency of administration.

While the currently available weekly injections from Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly have garnered much popularity, these can sometimes be a burden for the patient.

Amgen and Metsera are the two companies that seem to be pioneering the option of once-monthly dosing obesity medicine, according to the report.

However, for these ultra-long-acting candidates to succeed it’s important for them to show an efficacy comparable to the current available once-weekly therapies, said Costanza Alciati, Pharma Analyst at GlobalData.

Amgen’s MariTide (maridebard cafradutide) was the first candidate to show good efficacy in a once-monthly dosing regimen. The drug led to 17 per cent weight loss on average in patients at 52 weeks. The patients had no weight loss plateau and up to 99 per cent of them lost more than 5 per cent of their body weight.

More recently, Metsera announced the Phase IIa results for its MET-097i candidate. It was initially developed for once-weekly dosing, but its long half-life made it a candidate for once-monthly dosing too.

The duration of the trial was short, and the number of patients was also less. Yet, MET-097i “seems very promising, facilitating a placebo-adjusted mean body weight loss of 11.3 per cent in just 12 weeks, with no weight loss plateau observed,” Alciati said.

“This amount of weight loss in such a short time frame is impressive. Now, we will see if these results can be maintained in bigger trials, in a bigger cohort,” Alciati added.

It is an exciting time to be in the obesity drug development space.

GlobalData predicts that GLP-1R agonists will reach sales of $125.3 billion by 2033 in the seven major markets (namely the US, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK, and Japan), and 90 per cent of sales will be from obesity drug sales.

“Amgen’s and Metsera’s drugs could definitely be part of the next generation of obesity medicines. We can expect that to include oral candidates, new mechanisms of action, and ultra-long-acting drugs. The exciting thing is that all those are already in clinical stage, thus the next-generation drugs might be closer to reaching the market than expected,” Alciati said.