Obesity drug tracker: Can amylin drugs upend Wegovy, Zepbound?

Nearly two decades ago, a small company called Amylin Pharmaceuticals saw that its first commercial product, a diabetes treatment that targets receptors for the hormone amylin, led to weight loss. in early clinical trials.

However, to achieve the weight loss, the drug had to be injected three times a day, making it “essentially a non-starter from a commercial standpoint,” said David Kendall, executive director at Amylin at the time. Ultimately, the company was not aiming for an indication of weight loss.

Instead, another Amylin drug caught on with the biopharmaceutical industry: Byetta, a diabetes treatment that was the world’s first commercial GLP-1 therapy, eventually paving the way for the blockbusters Wegovy and Zepbound.