Swiss pharma giant Roche said on Monday that it is accelerating the development of its weight loss drugs, which could rival Wegovy, following promising early-stage trial data, the Financial Times (FT) reported.
The company's two obesity drug candidates are moving to the next phase of trials and may hit the market within a few years, potentially offering a pill-based alternative to Novo Nordisk’s (NVO) Wegovy and Eli Lilly’s (LLY) Zepbound injections.
“We are fast-tracking the clinical development of our obesity portfolio with the aim to bring these medications to patients faster than anticipated,” a Roche spokesperson reportedly told CNBC via email.
Although Roche did not disclose a specific timeline, CEO Thomas Schinecker suggested in an interview with the Financial Times that the first obesity drug could be available "significantly faster than people are expecting," possibly by 2028.
Previously, Roche Pharmaceuticals CEO Teresa Graham told CNBC in December that the company aimed to launch the products by 2030.
Roche's CT-388 drug is entering phase two trials after showing efficacy in a May study, where it helped obese patients lose 18.8% of their weight over 24 weeks compared to those on a placebo.
Another experimental drug, the once-daily pill CT-996, will begin phase two tests next year. Early trials this month showed a placebo-adjusted average weight loss of 6.1% within four weeks in obese patients without Type 2 diabetes.
With these encouraging results, Roche could become a strong competitor to obesity drug leaders Novo Nordisk (NYSE:NVO) and Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY). Schinecker told CNBC last week that he expects Roche to eventually offer a suite of obesity medications.
“We have a number of things in our pipeline that really can differentiate us from other players,” Schinecker said in an interview during CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe.”
“We do believe we have two next-generation GLP-1/GIPs that have a best in disease potential," he added.