Roche moves obesity drug into pivotal trials after mid-stage success

Andrew Joseph covers health, medicine and the biopharmaceutical industry in Europe. You can reach Andrew on Signal at drawqjoseph.71.

Roche plans to launch Phase 3 studies of its lead obesity candidate this quarter after reporting Tuesday that the drug led to significant weight loss in a mid-stage trial.

The drug, known as CT-388, caused an 18.3% weight loss after 48 weeks in the phase 2 trial at the highest dose tested of 24 milligrams, the Swiss pharmaceutical company said.

Roche said patients still lost weight at the end of the study period. Just under 6% of patients on treatment dropped out of the trial due to side effects, which Roche said were largely due to the gastrointestinal symptoms seen widely with newer weight loss treatments, compared with 1.3% of those in the placebo group.