New weight loss drugs aim to promote muscle growth

About a dozen drug creators are developing new weight loss treatments aimed at muscle preservation, and industry analysts, clinical test experts and doctors say they may need to demonstrate additional health benefits beyond numbers on a scale to T ‘was approved.

The drug is being tested to fill or replace Wegovy extremely popular by Novo Nordisk and Zepbound of Eli Lilly, which in the evidence helped patients lose 15% to 20% of their weight but also caused a muscle decrease that some doctors of find disturbing. In Wegovy’s evidence, up to 40% of weight loss was a decrease in lean or fat -free mass than excess fat.

These experimental medicines are still several years since possible approval.

Dozens of new drugs, including the most distant developing ones from Eli Lilly, Regereon, Scholar Rock and Veru, target proteins associated with muscle storage or growth. Wegovy and Zepbound target the GLP-1 protein to help control appetite.

Veru was the first with results in January by a trial of 168 people, indicating that his Enobosarm helped elderly patients lose 71% less muscle when dealing with Wegovy. Data on Lilly, Bimagrumab muscle mass conservation medicine is due to this year.

Westport, the New England Consulting -based Connecticut -based counseling group, estimates that the drug can collectively bring $ 1 billion to $ 5 billion a year by the end of the decade. Analysts have predicted the sales of overweight drugs reaching $ 150 billion a year by the early 2030s.

Some doctors say medicines that improve muscle mass can benefit older or weak people at greater risk of falling and fractures. A higher portion of the muscle can also help patients maintain weight for longer, experts say.

“If the narrative is shifted from the amount of weight lost in how long someone can hold that weight loss, it can be a powerful story,” said Riley McCarthy, High Project Manager in Necg.

How the food administration and drugs will approach the measurement of the benefits of these medicines in order to approve them is uncertain.

FDA Draft guidelines published in January say the loss of lean mass is not harmful, but still suggests measuring the muscle ratio of the test participants at least twice. He advised companies testing muscles to consult the agency early on their selected methods.

Analysts and clinical evidence experts expressed doubts whether the FDA would approve a drug only to the effect of muscle mass.

“There is a real battle uphill to get such something approved because the FDA does not approve medication based on muscle building or muscle preservation in this environment (overweight),” said BMO Capital Markets Evan Seigerman.

Future treatments will need to show benefits such as less side effects and improved heart health, he added.

Veru’s medicine helped patients maintain their strength to climb a flight of stairs, a benefit FDA has admitted to other types of medicines, and which analysts suggested can take medication like these during the finish line.

“Longer, we believe that FDA would require functional benefits of the result,” said Leerink analyst David Risinger.

Target of muscle growth

Veru, whose drug aims at androgen receptor cells to promote muscle growth, will use the ability to climb stairs as a judiciary in the late phase.

Lilly, who won Blovagumab with its purchase of $ 1.9 billion of Versanis biotechnics, is only testing the drug, and in combination with Zepbound, and will be completed with a Novo WEGOVY study before the 2023 purchase.

“I think it will really show a benefit for combining two medicines that we will probably have to see the increasing weight loss, or we will have to see true functional benefits for maintaining lean mass,” Shefi Lilly Dan Skovonsky’s scientific said earlier this month.

About half of these new medicines aim for the myostatin protein associated with muscle growth, while others aim for the asset, a protein with numerous biological functions. The drugs were first developed to treat neuromuscular disorders, such as spinal muscular atrophy and Duchenne muscular dystrophy, but none have been approved so far.

Myostatin drugs are believed to help muscles grow and reduce fat because they consume stored energy even when inactive.

Professor Se-Lin Lee, who discovered the myostatin path and advised Biohaven, said these medicines could work better if they are given with a GLP-1. He said he hoped the combination would allow a GLP-1 dose reduction, leading to fewer gastrointestinal side effects.

Biohaven’s drug helped increase the lean mass and bone density compared to a placebo in a recent test, but failed to improve motor function in patients with spinal muscular atrophy. The company is planning a medium -sized remedy for overweight.

Analysts and investors are closely watching the Lilly and Trevo -Rogumab of Blovagrumab now in high -phase studies. Regeneron’s medicine is also only tested and in combination with Wegovy.

Scholar Rock is aiming for a change in the lean mass of the body in the test of his drug, Apitegromab.

Treatments “should be able to show not only that there is a structural change in the size of the muscle or lean mass, but that there is an improvement in the performance that comes with it,” said Graham McMahon, Endocrinologist at the Chicago -based Feinberg School , Grass. “That’s what clinics like me will look for.”