New once-a-month Wegovy-like injectable shows lasting results in early study

Patients given a monthly injection of Amgen’s drug, dubbed MariTide, lost up to 14.5% of their body weight in just 12 weeks, according to a small, early-stage study published Monday in the journal Nature Metabolism. And some people kept the weight off for up to 150 days after stopping the drug, findings show.

“That is really a remarkable and distinguishing characteristic of this molecule,” Narimon Honarpour, senior vice president of global development at Amgen, said in an interview.

Investors and analysts have been eagerly awaiting updates on Amgen’s shot since the Thousand Oaks, California-based company shared early results at a conference in 2022. The latest Nature Metabolism study offers the most detailed look yet at Amgen’s drug, which is now in mid-stage studies. Another readout is expected later this year. 

Amgen’s drug works a bit differently than Wegovy or Zepbound. It’s what’s known as an antibody-drug conjugate, or ADC, a type of molecule more commonly used as a targeted cancer treatment. One part of the drug, an antibody, blocks the GIP receptor, while the other part, two peptides, mimics a gut hormone called GLP-1. 

“There’s something special about having them glued together the way they are on the same molecule,” said Saptarsi Haldar, vice president of cardiometabolic disorders at Amgen. The antibody component of the drug also allows it to stick around in the body longer than weekly weight-loss shots. 

Amgen designed the drug specifically as a treatment for obesity, but is now testing it in patients with diabetes — the opposite of how weight-loss drugs came to be at Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk. The decision to inhibit GIP, rather than mimic it like Eli Lilly’s Zepbound, was based on insights…