The potential of a once-a-day pill for obesity unsettled the weight loss stocks.
Shares in Novo Nordisk (NYSE:NVO) and Eli Lilly and Co (NYSE:LLY) were off 4% and 2% respectively on news that Roche's new pill had shown promise in early-stage clinical trials.
A phase I study revealed that CT-996 resulted in a weight drop of 6.1% in just four weeks.
“We are pleased to see the clinically meaningful weight loss in people treated with our oral GLP-1 therapy CT-996, which could eventually help patients address both chronic weight management and glycemic control indications,” Roche’s chief medical officer Levi Garraway said.
For Roche, this is a second promising drug candidate from Carmot Therapeutics, for which it paid an upfront $2.7 billion. In May the firm released promising early-stage data for another one of its weight-loss drug candidates, CT-388.