Lost more than Wegovy... Monthly obesity treatment 'Maritide' [News Terms]

A new contender against Wegovy is expected to emerge in the obesity treatment market. The American pharmaceutical company Amgen is developing a new obesity treatment that reduces weight more than Wegovy while decreasing the frequency of injections.

According to the New York Times on the 26th (local time), Amgen announced the results of its phase 2 clinical trial of its injectable obesity treatment MariTide, where participants lost up to 20% of their body weight over one year. This weight loss rate is higher than Wegovy's 15%. The injection frequency is also less than Wegovy’s. While Wegovy requires weekly injections, MariTide only needs to be injected once a month. About 600 obese individuals and type 2 diabetes patients participated in the phase 2 trial. Jeffrey Flier, a professor at Harvard University, said, "MariTide could become a competitive future player in the market."

[Photo by Amgen website]

Jay Bradner, Amgen’s Chief Scientific Officer (CSO), explained, "Participants maintained their weight loss up to 150 days after the trial ended," adding, "We are also researching an injection method every three months." Side effects such as nausea and vomiting may occur.

MariTide is similar to Wegovy and Zepbound in that it acts as a GLP-1 receptor agonist. GLP-1 receptor agonists stimulate beta cells in the pancreas to promote insulin secretion and slow gastric emptying, delaying digestion. This mechanism suppresses appetite and helps with weight control.

However, MariTide differs in that it blocks another gut hormone called GIP. Wegovy and others promote GIP. GIP helps insulin secretion while promoting fat energy consumption and activating fat metabolism. Bradner CSO said, "We decided to block GIP action after observing that people in Iceland with a gene blocking GIP action naturally lost weight." MariTide must undergo phase 3 clinical trials and receive approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) before it can be sold.

The global obesity treatment market is expected to grow at an average annual rate of 48.4% to reach $48 billion (about 67 trillion KRW) by 2028. In particular, the GLP-1 class obesity treatment market is expected to grow about 50% over the next five years due to pipeline expansion and improved accessibility in emerging markets. The projected market size in 2028 is $46.99 billion (about 64 trillion KRW).