The stock for Amgen has sunk following the biotech company’s reveal of its obesity treatment’s early results.
Sure enough, Amgen, also known as AMGN, is right behind Novo Nordisk (NVO) and Eli Lilly (LLY).
The phase 1 study proved that those who got the highest dose of AMG 133, were able to lose about 14 percent of their body mass in no more than 12 weeks.
The vice president of general medicines at Amgen, Narimon Honarpour, says that these results are so promising that they hope to put together a mid-stage study in the first few months of next year.
Honarpour also told Investor’s Business Daily that there are over 600 million obese people on the globe, this being the case for over 40 percent of the US population so having more obesity treatments available at the same time is not a problem.
“It’s going to be, and currently is, a very large market. Two years ago, we did not have any effective therapies for weight reduction except bariatric surgery. And now, the pharmaceutical industry and biotech has finally answered that call with some great medicines. We think that this, in fact, should create much more opportunity to get into the market,” he explained.
However, despite the market having enough space for multiple players and promising results, Amgen’s stock did not stay up since investors most likely compared the results to Lilly and Novo’s.
That being said, those other two drugs did give better results but it’s important to mention it was over longer periods of time.
Angen’s shares reached the highest point of 296.67 last month and have dropped to 285.94.
In the meantime, Lilly dipped a fraction as well while Novo’s stock rose 1.2 percent.
But what makes Amgen different?
Novo Nordisk’s approved drug Wegovy stimulates the hormone glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) in order to encourage one’s weight loss.
On the other hand, the experimental treatments from Lilly and Amgen, target GLP-1 but also GIPR (glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide receptor.)
Amgen’s medicine is able to both stimulate GLP-1 and also block GIPR, which is good news as studies show blocking GIPR can take weight loss to another level.
“We have a molecule that, by its design, is pumping the brakes on one pathway, the GIP receptor, while pressing the accelerator for the other pathway, the GLP receptor,” Honarpour noted.
Another thing worth mentioning is that Amgen lingers in the body for a longer period of time so patients will not need as many injections to get the same results.
As part of the study, one group got only one injection at the very beginning and lost 7.2 percent of their body weight while the second group received multiple injections, with those getting the highest dose losing 14.5 percent.
As part of their second phase of testing, Amgen plans to run a longer test in order to finally determine AMG 133’s full potential.
As for side effects, they remain mild and short-lived, Honarpour stressed, the most common being nausea and vomiting, both of which are quite common with GLP-1 treatments anyway.