AstraZeneca may be emphasizing the potential for combination treatments to help its obesity pipeline stand out from the crowd, but the Big Pharma insists it is still “playing to win” in the space.
The hype at the ObesityWeek conference in San Antonio, Texas, may be focused on phase 1 data for Viking Therapeutics’ oral GLP-1/GIP dual agonist, but AstraZeneca was keen to remind attendees that it has three clinical-stage obesity prospects of its own.
Chief among them is AZD5004, an oral GLP-1 agonist that the company secured from Eccogene for $185 million a year ago. The candidate is currently being evaluated in two phase 2b studies in obesity and type 2 diabetes, with readouts penciled in for the end of 2025 and early 2026, respectively. This follows an early-stage study that demonstrated AZD5004's “favorable tolerability and safety profile," according to the company.
There’s also a long-acting amylin dubbed AZD6234, which is undergoing its own phase 2 obesity trial. The asset demonstrated a “good tolerability profile with no safety concerns” in a phase 1 trial, according to Regina Fritsche-Danielson, head of research and early development, cardiovascular, renal and metabolism, at AstraZeneca.
“Our pharmacokinetics profile supported once-weekly dosing, and we also saw encouraging weight loss after these single doses with significant decreases in body weight compared to placebo at all doses studied,” Fritsche-Danielson told journalists on a call this morning.
AstraZeneca is gearing up for a mid-stage trial of AZD6234 in combination with its weekly GLP-1/glucagon candidate AZD9550. This once-weekly combo treatment should provide a “triple mechanism” of ensuring maximum weight loss while protecting organs and not compromising tolerability, the company said in a Monday presentation.
With so many competitors vying for the same weight loss goal and phase 2 data for AstraZeneca’s obesity candidates still a way off, executives used the call to point to the potential of combinations like these to help set its weight loss offering apart.
For AZD5004, the company is already eyeing up opportunities to trial it alongside AstraZeneca’s approved SGLT2 inhibitor Farxiga and its oral PCSK9 inhibitor AZD0780, according to Sharon Barr, EVP of biopharmaceuticals R&D.
“Recognizing and targeting the interconnectedness of diseases such as chronic kidney disease, heart failure, high cholesterol, type 2 diabetes in patients will help us to create more effective and holistic treatments,” Barr said on the call.
But is the focus on combination opportunities really an excuse for AstraZeneca to take off the pressure of proving that any of its obesity products will actually be able to deliver the goods when it comes to beating the competition at reducing patients’ weight? Barr insisted that’s not the case.
“When we think about how we're playing in this space—this is AstraZeneca, and we play to win,” she told Fierce Biotech.
“If we didn't think we had a highly competitive molecule, we would not be further investing in that molecule and moving it forward rapidly through clinical development,” she added.
Barr referred to the company’s decision to junk a GLP-1 agonist last year when “we didn't think it was highly competitive” as proof that the Big Pharma isn’t aiming for a silver medal in the weight loss race.