Amgen said that an interim look at a Phase 2 trial of its anti-obesity drug MariTide had left the company “very encouraged,” and it planned to rapidly move forward with a final-stage program as well as boost manufacturing capacity for the experimental drug.
“We are confident in MariTide’s differentiated profile and believe it will address important unmet medical need,” CEO Bob Bradway said on a call Thursday with investors after Amgen released first-quarter results. Bradway said the company was planning a broad Phase 3 program in obesity, diabetes and obesity-related conditions.
Despite the early nature of the update and the lack of data with the announcement, the surprise update immediately sent Amgen’s shares $AMGN up nearly 12% in after-hours trading. The company said it won’t move ahead with a pill-based anti-obesity drug, AMG-786.
MariTide, an injectable drug, could be given monthly — less frequently than competing drugs, the company said. Chief Scientific Officer Jay Bradner also said the trials had not had issues with dropouts, suggesting that the tolerability of MariTide (previously known as AMG-133) could be better than the side effects seen with some approved and under-development drugs.
“Patient dropout has not been an issue,” Bradner said in his prepared remarks. The company said it expects to have data from the Phase 2 study in late 2024. Executives on the call repeatedly emphasized that they expected the drug to be broadly differentiated from other drugs on the market.
Bradway said the company was ready, if needed, to deal with the huge demand that Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk have faced in supplying their own, already approved anti-obesity drugs.
“We have initiated activities to further expand manufacturing capacity with both clinical and commercial supply in mind,” Bradway said in his prepared remarks. “The unmet need here is very large and we want to be in position to supply the patients who will be interested in the differentiated profile of our medicine,” he said.