Novo Nordisk Says Goodbye to GLP-1/GIP MASH Prospect

Novo Nordisk has decided to discontinue the development of a medication candidate that it had highlighted earlier this year as an intriguing component of its pipeline—a once-a-month double GLP-1/GIP receptor agonist.

When the subcutaneous once-monthly potential was discussed during a capital markets day in March, Marcus Schindler, Ph.D., the chief scientific officer at Novo, had expressed his enthusiasm for it. When Schindler was talking about Novo’s preliminary diabetes portfolio at the time, he concentrated on the drug candidate rather than five other compounds. He said that infrequent dosing, particularly in diabetes (and in obesity to a lesser extent), is a major subject for them. The CSO also mentioned that the phase 1 potential may greatly improve convenience.

The potential significance of the candidate was brought to the attention of analysts, and a number of guests inquired about Novo’s availability for further information. However, Novo disclosed this morning that it had, in fact, eliminated the medicine altogether in the weeks that followed the investor presentation.

Novo’s Executive Vice President of Development, Martin Holst Lange, emphasized that the phase 1 trial of the candidate had not been conducted for anything other than exploratory purposes.

“While we definitely can use the data, the current profile was not something that we would take into further clinical development,” he said.

The firm, however, believes that patients would benefit from once-monthly delivery and wants to continue investigating this possibility, either via subsequent generations of this technology or by means of other approaches, as Lange explained.

Novo was already making a larger effort to promote irregular dosing, and the candidate was already a part of it. Schindler previously talked about the approaches that the firm is employing in order to extend the effects of incretins, a family of hormones comprising GLP-1—this took place at the investor event in March.

Schindler stated that they are keenly interested in technologies applicable to various key molecules, which they could deploy if desired. He emphasized that their technology investments would prioritize broad applicability over addressing a single issue.

The news that Novo has ended a phase 1 study of its VAP-1 inhibitor in metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) was communicated alongside the announcement that the company has terminated the GLP-1/GIP program. When asked about the rationale for terminating the trial and putting a stop to the development of the candidate, the pharmaceutical company once again cited “portfolio considerations.”

In 2019, Novo granted a license to UBE Industries to utilize an inhibitor of SSAO and VAP-1 for treatment in MASH. November marked the beginning of a phase 1 experiment that was conducted on healthy individuals. One VAP-1 inhibitor is included in Novo’s clinical-phase pipeline, according to the company.

The post Novo Nordisk Says Goodbye to GLP-1/GIP MASH Prospect appeared first on LifeSci Voice.