“Cancer is a leading cause of death and one in three people in the United States will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime,” Albert Bourla, Pfizer’s president, was quoted as saying in a statement.
Pfizer announced on March 13 its purchase of the biotechnology company for $43 billion, financed by debt and cash.
Seagen developed therapies that target tumor cells with greater precision, thereby reducing the side effects of treatments, a promising technology.
Pfizer said, however, that it will work on a modified version of the drug, called danuglipron.
That drug belongs to a new class of successful treatments that mimic a gastrointestinal hormone (GLP-1) to induce a feeling of satiety and weight loss.
The peculiarity of danuglipron, unlike competitors already on the market, is that it is administered orally through tablets and not by injection.
While the trial in question was based on taking pills twice a day, Pfizer said it wanted to focus on a new formulation to be taken once a day.
The clinical trial included a few hundred obese participants who did not have type 2 diabetes.
Side effects were similar to those expected for a drug of this type, but “high rates were observed,” with “up to 73% nausea, 47% vomiting, and 25% diarrhea,” Pfizer said.
More than half of the participants who received it discontinued the treatment.
On the other hand, it was shown to cause weight loss of 8% to 13% of body mass at 32 weeks, or 5% to 9.5% at 26 weeks.
“We believe that an improved formulation of danuglipron taken once a day could play an important role in the treatment of obesity,” Mikael Dolsten, a senior executive at Pfizer, said in a statement.
Source: With information from AFP and AP
