Pfizer on Thursday said it will go forward with a once-daily version of its weight-loss pill danugliprone after the corporate saw “encouraging” data in an ongoing early-stage trial.

The company evaluated several once-daily types of the drug and identified the one with the “most favorable profile” by way of safety and the body’s response to the drug.

Pfizer plans to conduct more early-stage trials within the second half of the yr to find out the perfect dose of the drug. Results are expected in the primary quarter of next yr, a spokesperson told CNBC. The company said those trials would “serve as the basis for the pivotal trials” utilized in applications for regulatory approval.

Results are expected in the primary quarter of next yr, a spokesman told CNBC.

Danugliprone “has demonstrated good efficacy in a twice-daily formulation, and we believe a once-daily formulation has the potential to have a competitive profile in the oral GLP-1 space,” Pfizer's outgoing chief scientific officer, Dr. Mikael Dolsten, said in a press release. Notably, the corporate has not observed any liver issues of safety in patients receiving a once-daily formulation of the drug.

Pfizer is one in every of several pharmaceutical firms vying for market share in a extremely popular class of weight-loss and diabetes drugs called GLP-1 agonists. Some analysts expect the industry around 100 billion US dollars to the top of the last decade.

But Pfizer has to date had difficulty gaining a foothold available in the market.

The pharmaceutical giant stopped a twice-daily version of danugliprone in December after patients in a mid-stage trial had problems tolerating the drug. At the time, Pfizer said early trial data on the once-daily version “show a way forward.”

But investors have been pessimistic in regards to the company's potential within the GLP-1 space because it pulled one other once-daily pill from the market in June 2023 because patients receiving the treatment had elevated liver enzymes. Those setbacks were just one in every of many Pfizer experienced last yr, along with the rapid decline in its Covid business, which dragged down the corporate's stock.

Nevertheless, Pfizer other experimental Anti-obesity drugs are in early development. The company has not disclosed how these treatments will work.

“Obesity is an important therapeutic area for Pfizer and the company has a robust pipeline with three clinical and several preclinical candidates,” Dolsten said within the press release.

Pfizer also believes GLP-1 is barely “scratching the surface of what we're going to see in the obesity space,” CEO Albert Bourla said during a conference in June.

Pfizer’s Danugliprone is a GLP-1 that promotes weight reduction in the identical way as Novo Nordisk's injection Wegovy and diabetes treatment Ozempic. The drugs mimic a single hormone produced within the gut called GLP-1, which signals to the brain when an individual is full.

Injections from Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly Demand for these vehicles has increased sharply over the past yr, despite their high price and limited insurance coverage.

The team is working with Pfizer and other pharmaceutical firms to develop oral versions which might be more convenient for patients to take and easier to fabricate, which could help ease supply shortages within the United States.

Pfizer had previously stated that the corporate could acquire or partner with a smaller obesity drug maker.

Bourla told reporters at a Conference in January that the corporate was unlikely to amass an obesity drug in advanced development, particularly as the corporate was focused on cost reduction.

However, he said Pfizer is on the lookout for potential licensing deals or early-stage weight-loss drugs.

Pfizer's update on danugliprone comes days after the corporate announced it was on the lookout for a successor to Dolsten. step back after greater than 15 years on the pharmaceutical company. Dolsten played an important role in the event of Pfizer's Covid vaccine.

Walgreens announced Wednesday that it is going to offer its own cheaper version of it over-the-counter Opioid overdose reversal spray naloxone. The drug is accessible online and will probably be available in all stores by the top of the month.

The drugstore retailer wants to extend availability of the life-saving drug within the U.S. because the country grapples with the fallout from the opioid epidemic and seeks to cut back alarmingly high drug death rates.

According to probably the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, between 1999 and 2021, greater than 645,000 people died from overdoses of any sort of opioid, including prescription and illicit opioids.

When administered timely, naloxone can temporarily reverse the results of an overdose of opioids, including heroin and fentanyl. The drug blocks the results of opioids on the brain, restoring normal respiration and stopping death.

Despite naloxone's effectiveness, access to the treatment “remains limited in many communities,” a Walgreens press release said.

The company said it is going to sell a two-dose package of “Walgreens Brand Naloxone” for $34.99. This is about $10 cheaper than that non-prescription brand drug Narcan, which received Food and Drug Administration approval last 12 months as the primary non-prescription version of naloxone. Previously, patients needed a prescription to access naloxone.

“This was a concerted decision to really do everything we could to improve accessibility, not just in terms of quantity and availability, but also in terms of price,” Dr. Priya Mammen, senior medical director in Walgreens' Office of Clinical Integrity, told CNBC in an interview.

The company said the launch of its over-the-counter naloxone nasal spray is post-FDA approval current approval of the product. It is the generic Equivalent to over-the-counter Narcan that Walgreens currently offers in its stores.

Mammen hopes Walgreens may help reduce the stigma related to drug overdoses and naloxone use.

The drug “isn’t just for some people. “It is a life-saving medicine that can intervene in anyone at any age and at any time, and it is something that families, individuals and communities can strengthen by making available and can be part of the solution,” she said.