Future obesity drugs must provide improved efficacy and safety, new research indicates

Despite the current market's clinical and regulatory challenges, the obesity treatment pipeline is robust and contains a high level of diversity in both molecule types and molecular targets, with 39% of the pipeline products with disclosed molecular targets classified as first-in-class.

Analysis from business intelligence provider GBI Research – Frontier Pharma: Obesity – Identifying and Commercializing First-in-Class Innovation – states that, while most pipeline products target gut hormone receptors, the remainder target a wide range of processes thought to be dysregulated in obesity, such as angiogenesis, insulin signalling, inflammation, fat absorption, lipid synthesis, and metabolism.

GBI’s senior analyst Angel Wong said: "The high level of innovation and diversity in molecular target in development is encouraging, with a number of these not only showing close alignment to the disease pathophysiology but also addressing multiple mechanisms underpinning the development of obesity. As obesity is a multifactorial disease, targeting multiple systems may potentially avoid compensatory mechanisms that lead to weight regain and achieve sustainable weight loss over the long term."