Pfizer has axed two clinical-stage obesity programs, including a GLP-1 receptor agonist that came over in the $10 billion acquisition of Metsera.
The oral, fully biased, ultra-long-acting GLP-1 drug, dubbed MET-224o, was one of the rewards from Pfizer's successful resolution of the bidding war with Novo Nordisk last year to secure Metsera.
MET-224o was one of Metsera’s two lead oral product candidates. The other, called MET-097o, was an oral formulation of its injectable GLP-1 prospect MET-097i. MET-097o was already absent from Pfizer’s R&D pipeline when the company provided (PDF) its first quarterly update after closing the Metsera deal.
The other clinical-stage obesity prospect to be scrapped by Pfizer this morning is PF-07976016. The GIPR antagonist was in phase 2 development, with Pfizer unveiling plans last December to test the candidate in combination with YP05002, an oral small molecule GLP-1 drug it licensed from China’s YaoPharma for $150 million upfront. PF-07976016 was the only asset to survive the obesity clearout that preceded Pfizer’s reconstruction of its weight loss pipeline through deals with YaoPharma and Metsera, but it was undone by midphase data.
“After reviewing phase 2a data for our GIPR antagonist on background of liraglutide, Pfizer has decided to discontinue development of the molecule, though we continue to explore approaches targeting the GIP receptor,” a Pfizer spokesperson told Fierce.
With Metsera's MET-224o now discontinued, Pfizer has only one oral GLP-1 drug left in the pipeline in the form of PF-08642534, Pfizer’s name for YP05002. However, the company told Fierce that it remains “committed to exploring oral peptide and small molecule approaches for agonism of the GLP-1 receptor.”
Pfizer also continues to advance a multi-asset obesity pipeline led by the phase 3 injectable berobenatide. On Pfizer's second-quarter earnings call this morning, Chief Scientific Officer Chris Boshoff, M.D., Ph.D., shared an analysis that “suggests berobenatide can deliver weight loss comparable to tirzepatide and potentially better than semaglutide.”
Combined with data from the extension arm of berobenatide's phase 2b Vesper-1 trial, Pfizer is increasingly confident that the candidate “can potentially deliver robust efficacy and favorable [gastrointestinal] tolerability with the convenience of a monthly therapy,” Boshoff added.
The pharma disclosed the discontinuation of MET-224o and PF-07976016 alongside the removal of two other drug candidates from its R&D pipeline. They included PF-07258669, an MC4R antagonist for malnutrition that had already seen its phase 1 study cut short earlier this year for business reasons.
PF-07258669 entered Pfizer’s pipeline through a deal with Nxera Pharma. Pfizer partnered with Heptares Therapeutics, now part of Nxera, in 2015 and nominated PF-07258669 as a clinical candidate in anorexia in 2021. Pfizer’s termination of the program eliminates a potential competitor to mifomelatide, an MC4R antagonist that Kalohexis is developing to optimize the body weight of cancer patients.
The last of Pfizer's abandoned assets was PF-07985631, which was in phase 1 development for nephropathy.
Editor's note: This story was updated at 11:30am E.T. on Aug. 4 with details from Pfizer's second-quarter earnings call.