Pfizer’s new obesity bet, Metsera, publishes drug data

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PfizerThe most recent bet on obesity is already promising.

The company last week said it would buy a Metsera weight loss drug manufacturer in an agreement up to $ 7.3 billion, including future payments, which should conclude at the end of the year. A week later, Metsera published data from mid-term tests on its main candidate on obesity of obesity which will allow the company to start phase three studies later this year.

Metsera, founded in 2022, brings a pipeline of oral and injectable treatments with different targets. The company has taken these drugs thanks to its own license and acquisition agreements. But all eyes are on the injection of Metsera, Met-097i, which is most distant from development.

The company develops the injection to take once a month, which could offer a practical advantage on weekly injections that currently dominate the market. Met-097i is in the GLP-1 class, which is the same category as Novo Nordisk“Wegovy obesity seal and Eli Lilly‘S Rival Zepbound treatment.

The first data suggests that it can provide high weight loss with less gastrointestinal side effects than market treatments. Monday’s new data seem to support this – at least for the moment.

In a note on Monday, JPMorgan’s analyst Chris Schott said: “More broadly, we continue to consider the 097I Methies as one of the many emerging competitors who, in our view, will take a part of Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk over time. He described the results of “solid”, adding that the overall profile of the drug turns into the weight loss medication of Eli Lilly Zepbound.

Decompose the results.

Metsera said the highest dose of its injection had shown weight loss up to 14.1% on average after 28 weekly doses in a mid-term test called Vesper-1. Some participants have lost much more, the highest being 26.5% weight loss.

Vesper-1 has an current extension study which includes less frequent dosage options. Metsera said that an exploratory analysis at the end of the weekly dosage phase of the extension to 36 weeks has demonstrated “substantial and continuous weight loss”, which means that no tray had occurred.

It is difficult to compare the results to those of other drugs without a head-to-face study, but the weight loss caused by the injection of Metsera seems to be encouraging. Wegovy caused weight loss of approximately 15% after 68 weeks in more important phase three tests. Zepbound has shown weight loss over 20% in advanced studies.

The other test, Vesper-3, is underway, so Put will not report the weight loss data on Monday. This trial examines the monthly injection dosage, with initial weight loss data provided for at the end of the year or at the start of 2026, depending on the company. The drug has a long half -life – or the time required for concentrating the drug in your body to reduce by half – which makes a dosage of once a month.

Patients seemed to manage Metsera’s injection into both studies, based on existing data. But we still need more detailed data of tests to say if they can be better tolerated than market injections, while providing competitive weight loss.

The company said that a starting dose of 0.4 milligrams, its injection was as tolerated as a placebo in both trials. Metsera said that progressive increases, one by two steps in this dose, could give the medicine an asset on competitors in the GLP-1 class.

In Vesper -3, patients who have gradually increased their dose in the highest dose – 1.2 milligram – more than 12 weeks have seen “little diarrhea, with only modest increases in nausea and vomiting”. Nausea and vomiting rates in these patients were 13% and 11% above placebo respectively.

Even in higher doses without progressive increase, the side effects of injection in Vesper-1 were comparable to other approved weight loss drugs, according to Metsera.

In particular, only 2.9% of patients in this trial – two of the 239 patients – stopped treatment due to side effects. Although it is just a mid-term study, this stop rate is encouraging.

Other drug obesity drugs have reported stop rates close to 10%, which is slightly higher than that of existing treatments on the market.

Overall, we always want to see tests at an advanced stage on Met-097i and the other Metsera drugs. If everything goes as planned, the company’s pipeline could provide important yields for Pfizer on the line.

In a note last week, Leerink Partners analyst David Risinger said that the company estimated that Metsera’s obesity candidates had the potential to generate more than $ 5 billion in combined annual sales.

We will not fail to cover them carefully, so stay attentive.

Do not hesitate to send advice, suggestions, history ideas and data to Annika in a new e-mail: annika.constantino@versantmedia.com.

Health insurers favor the profitability of the growth of Medicare health insurance for 2026, after having fought with higher health costs than members and regulatory reimbursement changes that have gnawed.

The centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services are planning that decline in certain plan offers could lead to a drop in adherence to Medicare Advantage (MA) next year. It would be the first drop of more than a decade. However, the agency says that the market remains stable and that plan offers are robust.

But the Medicare brokers who help the elderly register for plans say that this could be one of the most disturbing periods of registration in more than a decade. Insurers prioritize plans with more restrictive supplier networks, completely eliminating commissions on less profitable plans. Baird analysts calculate that more than 70% of these so -called downgrading plans are PPOs, or organizational organizations of favorite suppliers to the wider network.

Large players have telegraphed many of these strategies in recent months. However, analysts say that regional insurers make some of the same movements, which could prove to be the Joker in the mixture.

“The potential for the regional to leave my significant number increases the challenges of national control plans this year, given a high risk of poor evaluation, which has resulted in unforeseen growth,” wrote Elizabeth Anderson d’Ivercore d’Isi in a note to customers on Tuesday morning.

The closure of the imminent government on Wednesday is another unknown, although a former CMS official has declared that he should not disrupt the open registration period because the financing of the entrepreneurs involved in the process would have already been allocated.

Seniors can have their first overview of the new plans of 2026 from Wednesday, before the real start of the registration opened on October 15.

Do not hesitate to send advice, suggestions, history ideas and data to Bertha in a new e-mail: bertha.coombs@versantmedia.com.