Amgen says MariTide helped trial patients maintain weight loss

By Michael Erman and Deena Beasley

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan 12 (Reuters) – An extension study of Amgen’s experimental obesity drug MariTide found that it helped people maintain weight loss when given at a lower dose or less frequently, the company said on Monday.

The findings were announced by CEO Bob Bradway in a presentation at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco.

Amgen’s drug is given as a monthly injection, but is also being tested in a quarterly dose. The company has said it could be an appealing alternative to current popular weight-loss drugs like Eli Lilly’s Zepbound and Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy, which are injected weekly.

Amgen said in June that MariTide helped overweight or obese patients shed up to 20% of their body weight in its 52-week Phase 2 study. Most patients, however, experienced gastrointestinal side effects like vomiting and the company said future trials would start with a much lower dose that would increase over time.

In the second part of the Phase 2 trial – aimed at assessing the drug’s potential as a maintenance therapy – patients who achieved 15% or more weight loss were re-randomized to receive different doses of MariTide or a placebo for another 52 weeks.

Amgen said a “large majority” of those patients given a lower monthly dose or a quarterly dose of the drug maintained weight loss achieved in the first part of the study.

The company also said the second year of MariTide treatment was very well tolerated including at quarterly doses, with a low incidence of nausea and vomiting and no new safety signals observed.

“While these descriptive data appear promising, we await more detailed results for further clarity,” BMO Capital Markets analyst Evan Seigerman said in a research note.

Amgen also said a 24-week study of monthly MariTide in people with Type 2 diabetes who were overweight or obese showed robust and clinically meaningful reduction in both HbA1c, a measure of blood sugar, and weight.

“Other people are clamoring to develop once-monthly or less frequent dose medicines, and we are unambiguously in the lead there,” Jay Bradner, Amgen’s head of research and development, said on Monday.

Wegovy targets receptors for the appetite- and blood-sugar-reducing hormone known as GLP-1, while Zepbound stimulates GLP-1 and a second gut hormone called GIP.

Amgen’s MariTide takes a different approach. It is an antibody linked to a pair of peptides that activates the GLP-1 receptor while simultaneously blocking the GIP receptor.

Amgen said it currently has six global Phase 3 MariTide studies underway across obesity and related conditions including heart disease and sleep apnea.

(Reporting by Deena Beasley in Los Angeles and Michael Erman in San Francisco; Editing by Bill Berkrot, Matthew Lewis and Himani Sarkar)