Amgen scraps experimental weight loss pill, moves forward with injection

Amgen on Thursday said it will stop developing its experimental weight loss pill and instead move forward with its injectable drug and other products in development for obesity.

The announcement is a setback for Amgen, which is among several drugmakers racing to join the red-hot weight loss drug space dominated by Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, which some analysts say could be worth $100 billion by the end of the decade. But the company has other opportunities to capture a slice of the market.

"Given the profile we've seen with [the oral drug], we will not pursue further development. Instead, in obesity, we're differentially investing in MariTide and a number of preclinical assets," Jay Bradner, Amgen's chief scientific officer, said during an earnings call Thursday.

Amgen is developing an injectable obesity treatment called MariTide, which is in an ongoing midstage trial in obese or overweight adults without diabetes. The company will release initial data from that study later this year, and Bradner said Amgen is "very pleased" with the results so far.

The company said it is working with regulators to plan a late-stage trial for the treatment. Amgen said Thursday it is planning a stage two trial on the drug in diabetes treatment as well.

Amgen also has other drugs in development for weight management. 

The drugmaker's oral drug, called AMG-786, is the second weight loss pill to be discontinued over the past year.

Pfizer in December scrapped a twice-daily version of its obesity pill, danuglipron, after patients had a difficult time tolerating the drug in a midstage trial. The company is now developing a once-daily version of that drug.

Investors are laser-focused on Amgen's pipeline of experimental weight loss treatments. Amgen