Good morning, lots of news today so we’ll get straight into it.
The need-to-know this morning
- Bluebird Bio said it will lay off 25% of its workforce as part of a restructuring plan needed to reduce the company’s cash operating expenses by 20%. Bluebird has struggled to generate revenue from three approved gene therapies, including Lyfgenia for sickle cell disease.
- Wave Life Sciences reported preliminary results from an early study of its RNA-based treatment for Duchenne muscular dystrophy amenable to exon 53 skipping.
Metsera’s GLP-1 drug has potential for monthly dosing
This morning, Metsera, a new obesity biotech, reported that its GLP-1 drug led to substantial and durable weight loss in a Phase 1 study.
The highest dose of the drug tested, 1.2 mg, was given weekly five times, and then researchers monitored weight loss after the last dose. At 36 days, one week after the final dose, those on the highest dose had 7.5% weight loss. (That’s quite rapid weight loss, if you consider that Wegovy led to 15% weight loss in a Phase 3 trial lasting over a year.)
Then, at 57 days, which was four weeks after the final dose, the weight loss extended to 8.1% — a finding that suggests the drug has a longer-lasting effect than currently available treatments, supporting the potential for monthly dosing. Metsera said the treatment has a half life of about 16 days.
The current GLP-1 drugs on the market, such as Wegovy and Zepbound, are dosed weekly, so a monthly option could be more convenient and attractive to patients. But Metsera is further behind many other companies developing next-generation obesity treatments, so it’s not clear if its treatment would still be competitive if it eventually gets on the market.
Metsera said that gastrointestinal side effects were dose-related and mostly mild and transient, though it didn’t report specific data. The researchers did not see any severe adverse events linked to the drug, and there were no treatment-related discontinuations.
The biotech plans to start a Phase 2b trial of the drug, called MET-097, in the fourth quarter of this year, with data expected in the first half of next year.
Biogen and UCB’s risky bet seems to have paid off
Biogen and UCB said today that their experimental drug to treat systemic lupus reduced disease activity and symptoms, achieving the primary goal of a Phase 3 study.
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