The key reason Pfizer passed was that executives didn't think patients would accept a new therapy that required injection to administer:
Despite our emerging results, the Pfizer executives in charge of research and external alliances told us the company did not want to develop a new diabetes therapy that required injection, a space held exclusively by insulin since 1922. They gave us a year to find a way to deliver GLP-1 via transnasal, transcutaneous, or oral administration. Effective delivery by any of these approaches would have been great, but we knew success was unlikely in the year they gave us. Our effort was predictably unsuccessful, and after four years, Pfizer terminated our agreement as permitted under the alliance contract.
The first commercial GLP-1 receptor agonist, Exenatide, went to market as an injectable medication in 2005 [1]. Orally delivered GLP-1 medications didn't come to market until 2019 when orally dosed semaglutide was approved as Rybelsus [2].
Now that injected GLP-1 drugs are among the most-prescribed drugs in America, I wonder if drug company executives are going to be more receptive to drug candidates that require injections. There are a lot of molecules (especially peptides) that are degraded by the digestive system; maybe people will be more willing to inject medications when so many have started self-injecting for GLP-1 drugs or know someone who has.
The proprietary injector mechanism like for Mounjaro makes it really easy for users. Even compounded versions of it use tiny insulin needles that have near zero pain when injected into the subcutaneous portion of like the stomach while pinched.
Source: I took compounded Mounjaro and compounded Ozempic/semaglutide.
I stopped taking compound Mounjaro a year ago. I started semaglutide in Sept and stopped because it made me sick (throwing up, other non desirable GI effects). My body couldn’t handle semaglutide.
> Despite our emerging results, the Pfizer executives in charge of research and external alliances told us the company did not want to develop a new diabetes therapy that required injection,
Well, COVID certainly put an end to those fears (by consumers). Coincidentally, obesity was also said to increase COVID risk. Hollywood couldn’t have scripted it - no pun intended - any better.
Incredibly bothersome that these executives can rise so high and get paid so much despite having such terrible decisionmaking skills.
An injection to cure obesity is a small price to ask, as any person that has been obese will tell you. They could have determined this from a simple survey.
What was the human cost of their decision? Maybe an entire delayed decade of progress? How many people died, that could have been saved?
I would love to meet some of these executives and understand what they were thinking, and if they understand/regret the impact of their foolishness.
> An injection to cure obesity is a small price to ask, as any person that has been obese will tell you. They could have determined this from a simple survey.
You're missing the primary point: GLP-1 was investigated as another me-too diabetes drug, for which there were many injectable drugs available.
It wasn't until much much later that it was discovered to be an obesity drug. It was a completely coincidental and accidental discovery.
It turns out that most science is like that. We make the most important discoveries unexpectedly and by chance. Which is why you should always distrust the politicians that mock and ridicule science for sounding ordinary or obvious. That's where the real magic happens.
So much of pharmaceutical development is educated guess work. For every promising compound even brought to human trials there were likely 10s-100s of others that were abandoned or neglected for lack of resources to pursue them all. Without the benefit of hindsight there are bound to be mistakes made.
At the time it was not clear that GLP-1 solves obesity problem so effectively - many drugs suppress hunger (eg amphetamines), it's just that GLP-1 works long term and does not have significant side effects. Hard to predict without hindsight.
Insulin is injectable so GLP-1 was thought to be at best marginal improvement over already existing protocol - so likely profitable product but not excessively so. Company has limited resources so decisions on cuts have to be made and some of those decisions are naturally wrong - drugs are unpredictable.
On regret - they missed on 30B+ of profits so of cause they regret it.
https://web.archive.org/web/20240909093450/https://www.statn...
The key reason Pfizer passed was that executives didn't think patients would accept a new therapy that required injection to administer:
Despite our emerging results, the Pfizer executives in charge of research and external alliances told us the company did not want to develop a new diabetes therapy that required injection, a space held exclusively by insulin since 1922. They gave us a year to find a way to deliver GLP-1 via transnasal, transcutaneous, or oral administration. Effective delivery by any of these approaches would have been great, but we knew success was unlikely in the year they gave us. Our effort was predictably unsuccessful, and after four years, Pfizer terminated our agreement as permitted under the alliance contract.
The first commercial GLP-1 receptor agonist, Exenatide, went to market as an injectable medication in 2005 [1]. Orally delivered GLP-1 medications didn't come to market until 2019 when orally dosed semaglutide was approved as Rybelsus [2].
Now that injected GLP-1 drugs are among the most-prescribed drugs in America, I wonder if drug company executives are going to be more receptive to drug candidates that require injections. There are a lot of molecules (especially peptides) that are degraded by the digestive system; maybe people will be more willing to inject medications when so many have started self-injecting for GLP-1 drugs or know someone who has.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exenatide
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semaglutide#Legal_status
In large organizations, I guess a big chunk of success comes from being able to navigate all these political ups and downs.
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/vaccine-beer-polyomaviru...
Source: I took compounded Mounjaro and compounded Ozempic/semaglutide.
Heroin addicts and presumably anyone else who frequently injects into a vein can cause damage to the veins.
(2024)
Well, COVID certainly put an end to those fears (by consumers). Coincidentally, obesity was also said to increase COVID risk. Hollywood couldn’t have scripted it - no pun intended - any better.
An injection to cure obesity is a small price to ask, as any person that has been obese will tell you. They could have determined this from a simple survey.
What was the human cost of their decision? Maybe an entire delayed decade of progress? How many people died, that could have been saved?
I would love to meet some of these executives and understand what they were thinking, and if they understand/regret the impact of their foolishness.
You're missing the primary point: GLP-1 was investigated as another me-too diabetes drug, for which there were many injectable drugs available.
It wasn't until much much later that it was discovered to be an obesity drug. It was a completely coincidental and accidental discovery.
It turns out that most science is like that. We make the most important discoveries unexpectedly and by chance. Which is why you should always distrust the politicians that mock and ridicule science for sounding ordinary or obvious. That's where the real magic happens.
Insulin is injectable so GLP-1 was thought to be at best marginal improvement over already existing protocol - so likely profitable product but not excessively so. Company has limited resources so decisions on cuts have to be made and some of those decisions are naturally wrong - drugs are unpredictable.
On regret - they missed on 30B+ of profits so of cause they regret it.
This tells me that research on the drug is old and that increases security on its use.