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Amgen's MariTide Yields 20% Weight Loss; Shares Drop Amid Competitiveness Concerns

Nov 26, 2024, 12:53 PM

Amgen announced that its experimental obesity drug, MariTide (maridebart cafraglutide), administered as a once-monthly injection, led to up to 20% average weight loss after 52 weeks in a Phase 2 study involving patients with obesity or overweight. In patients with type 2 diabetes, the drug demonstrated a 17% weight loss and reduced HbA1c levels by 2.2 percentage points. The study reported no weight-loss plateau observed after one year, suggesting potential for further weight reduction beyond 52 weeks. No new safety concerns were observed, and gastrointestinal side effects showed rapid improvement, with less than 8% dropout due to GI issues in dose-escalation arms. Despite these results, Amgen's shares dropped as much as 12% in pre-market trading, reducing its market capitalization by about $18 billion, as the data fell short of some analysts' expectations and raised questions about the drug's competitiveness against established market leaders such as Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk.