FRANKFURT, April 28 (Reuters) – Boehringer Ingelheim said on Tuesday its experimental obesity drug led to average weight loss of up to 16.6% in a late-stage trial, as the unlisted German drugmaker seeks to catch up with industry pioneers Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk .
The Phase III trial showed patients treated with survodutide lost 16.6% of their body weight after 76 weeks, compared with 3.2% in a placebo group, Boehringer said in a statement.
Participants were obese or overweight adults without type 2 diabetes.
Survodutide mimics the appetite-suppressing gut hormone GLP-1, targeted by injectable drugs such as Novo’s Wegovy, but also imitates the gut hormone glucagon, a combination some developers hope will boost weight loss.
Boehringer CEO Shashank Deshpande told Reuters he believed the glucagon component in survodutide could help differentiate the company in the obesity market as the drug not only targets weight loss but also the quality of the reduction.
“With the GLP‑1 component you have appetite reduction and thus weight loss, and with the glucagon component you have a drug that acts directly on liver fat, potentially improving metabolic processes,” Deshpande said.
“We also looked at body composition data. And here we saw that survodutide significantly reduces visceral fat – the metabolically harmful fat,” he added.
Boehringer acquired the rights in 2011 to solely develop and commercialise survodutide from Denmark’s Zealand Pharma, which is entitled to royalty payments on global revenue.
Full results from the Phase III study, called SYNCHRONIZE-1, will be presented at the American Diabetes Association’s 2026 Scientific Sessions, scheduled from June 5 to June 8.
Biotech company Altimmune is developing a drug based on the effects of the same two hormones.
In early 2024, survodutide delivered promising mid-stage results in the treatment of fatty liver, also known as metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis, or MASH.
Shares in Zealand Pharma rose 3.5% by 0732 GMT.
(Reporting by Patricia Weiss. Writing by Ludwig Burger. Editing by Mark Potter and Keith Weir)
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