Verdiva Bio has scrapped a phase 2 trial of its once-weekly oral GLP-1 drug candidate VRB-101. The decision comes a year after the U.K. biotech launched with a mammoth $410 million series A to bankroll an obesity pipeline led by VRB-101.
The company, which continues to test VRB-101 in other settings, terminated the study after refining clinical development plans for its peptide “in light of market evolution,” a company spokesperson confirmed via email. Verdiva, a 2025 Fierce 15 honoree, designed the terminated study to assess the effect of giving VRB-101 to patients who lost weight on injectable GLP-1 drugs.
Eli Lilly is among the drugmakers to identify an opportunity for oral maintenance dosing in people who lose weight on injectable drugs. Lilly shared data from a switch-maintenance trial in December. VRB-101 is given weekly, potentially making it more convenient than Lilly’s daily Foundayo tablets.
Verdiva ended its switch-maintenance trial after enrolling eight participants, falling well short of the 120 people it originally aimed to recruit. Investigators began enrolling patients in June, and the trial ended in September.
“We continue to develop VRB-101 as a potential monotherapy, while ensuring the program generates the data needed to inform its potential role alongside our amylin portfolio,” Verdiva’s spokesperson said. “Data from the Evolve-2 study is being assessed and we’ll provide an update on the clinical trial when we can.”
Evolve-2 was a phase 2b trial that tested VRB-101 as a monotherapy in 206 patients. The trial ended in July. Upon completing enrollment in Evolve-2 in February, Verdiva said (PDF) it expected topline results from the trial by the end of the year. Last month, the biotech said (PDF) it aimed to share initial phase 1 data on VRB-101 in combination with VRB-103, its oral amylin peptide analog, this year.
Investors have a lot resting on the data. Verdiva raised the third-largest private biotech round of 2025, securing cash from a syndicate co-led by Forbion and General Atlantic. The support reflected Verdiva’s chances of leveraging weekly dosing to differentiate its drug candidates from daily oral treatments.
Speaking to Fierce last year, Verdiva CEO Khurem Farooq said that when it comes to oral weight loss drugs, “tolerability, as well as some reasonable level of expectation around efficacy, is the key.”
“Because when you have a potential once-weekly oral, it allows you the possibility of maintenance dosing over the longer period versus being on injectables,” Farooq explained at the time.