What is Pfizer’s weight-loss drug?
Known as danuglipron, the diabetes and obesity treatment is in a class of drugs called GLP-1 agonists and mimics a hormone the body releases when a person eats food. People have reduced appetite, and when they do eat, they feel full sooner, as TODAY.com previously reported. Semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy, is also in this class of drugs.
Danuglipron comes in pill form. Unlike oral semaglutide, which is currently available as the Type 2 diabetes treatment Rybelsus, it doesn’t require fasting before or after taking the pill, researchers reported in the results of the study testing danuglipron, which was sponsored by Pfizer.
When people took danuglipron twice a day for four months, their body weight was “statistically significantly reduced” compared to a placebo, according to a phase 2 randomized clinical trial that involved 411 adults with Type 2 diabetes. The results were published in JAMA Network in May 2023.
Study participants who took the highest dose of danuglipron — 120 milligrams, twice daily — lost about 10 pounds in 16 weeks, researchers reported. The paper didn’t directly compare those results to Ozempic or Wegovy, but a phase 3 trial showed patients who received a once-weekly 1 milligram injection of semaglutide lost about 10 pounds in 30 weeks.