Viking Therapeutics stock jumps on weight loss injection trial plans

Viking Therapeutics stock jumps on weight loss injection trial plans

Weight loss drug concept. Cr | Istock | Getty Images Shares of Viking Therapeutics jumped 16% in premarket trading Thursday after the biotech company a day earlier announced plans to advance its experimental weight loss injection into a late-stage trial earlier than expected.  It brings the San Diego-based company one step closer to joining the … Read more

Wegovy obesity rival to be part of a suite of weight loss drugs

Wegovy obesity rival to be part of a suite of weight loss drugs

Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images Roche said Thursday that its Wegovy rival weight loss drugs will be part of a suite of medicines aimed at combatting the effects of obesity. CEO Thomas Schinecker welcomed positive early stage trial results from the firm’s two weight loss drug candidates as showing “best in disease potential.” … Read more

Pfizer’s gene therapy for hemophilia A succeeds in late-stage trial

Pfizer’s gene therapy for hemophilia A succeeds in late-stage trial

Kena Betancur | Corbis News | Getty Images Pfizer on Wednesday said its experimental gene therapy for a rare genetic blood-clotting disorder succeeded in a large late-stage trial, paving the way for a potential approval. The treatment for hemophilia A could become the company’s second gene therapy to enter the U.S. market after Beqvez, which … Read more

Lawmakers unveil PBM reform bill amid rising drug costs

Lawmakers unveil PBM reform bill amid rising drug costs

Feverpitched | Getty Images Bipartisan lawmakers introduced a new bill on Tuesday that aims to crack down on the business practices of drug supply chain middlemen who are widely accused of inflating prescription medication prices and harming U.S. patients and pharmacies. The legislation aims to ensure community pharmacies can provide care to patients enrolled in … Read more

Inceptive CEO Jakob Uszkoreit says AI will transform pharmaceuticals

Inceptive CEO Jakob Uszkoreit says AI will transform pharmaceuticals

Before co-founding biotech startup Inceptive, Jakob Uszkoreit had an idea that would eventually make generative artificial intelligence possible. As a researcher at Google in 2017, Uszkoreit was trying to speed up the training of neural networks. He suggested using a new way to interpret data called self-attention. That idea gave way to the transformer, the … Read more

Pfizer weight loss pill moves forward as once-daily version

Pfizer weight loss pill moves forward as once-daily version

Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images Pfizer on Thursday said it will move forward with a once-daily version of its weight loss pill, danuglipron, after it saw “encouraging” data in an ongoing early-stage trial. The company evaluated several once-daily formulations of the drug and identified one with “the most favorable profile.” Pfizer said it … Read more

FTC to sue PBMs over drug prices including insulin

FTC to sue PBMs over drug prices including insulin

FTC Chairwoman Lina Khan testifies during the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government hearing titled “Fiscal Year 2025 Request for the Federal Trade Commission,” in Rayburn Building on Wednesday, May 15, 2024. Tom Williams | CQ-Roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images The Federal Trade Commission is planning to sue three large U.S. … Read more

Weight loss stocks should grab big gains, Tema ETFs’ CEO suggests

Weight loss stocks should grab big gains, Tema ETFs’ CEO suggests

Tema ETFs has been capitalizing on the risk appetite for weight loss stocks. It is behind the GLP-1, Obesity & Cardiometabolic ETF (HRTS), which is up 26% since its inception last November. The firm’s founder and CEO Maurits Pot thinks the winning weight loss trade isn’t based on just hype. “The companies we track and … Read more

Novo Nordisk weight loss drugs linked to rare eye condition: study

Novo Nordisk weight loss drugs linked to rare eye condition: study

A box of Ozempic and contents sit on a table in Dudley, North Tyneside, Britain, October 31, 2023.  George Frey | Reuters Novo Nordisk investors appeared unperturbed Thursday by a critical Harvard report that linked weight loss drugs to a rare eye condition. Semaglutide, which is present in weight loss drugs including Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic … Read more

FDA approves Eli Lilly Alzheimer’s drug donanemab

FDA approves Eli Lilly Alzheimer’s drug donanemab

A sign with the company logo sits outside of the headquarters campus of Eli Lilly and Company on March 17, 2024 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Scott Olson | Getty Images The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday approved Eli Lilly‘s Alzheimer’s drug donanemab, expanding the limited treatment options for the mind-wasting disease in the U.S. The … Read more