New obesity treatments to be unveiled at industry event

[Image source: Gettyimagesbank]

Global pharmaceutical and bio companies are expected to unveil new obesity treatments at the 2024 edition of the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, the world’s largest bio healthcare event, scheduled to take place this week.

J.P. Morgan’s official website highlighted obesity treatments on its main page Saturday local time, with an explanation that there is increasing interest from investors in obesity drugs.

The J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, which will take place from January 8 to 11 in San Francisco, the United States, will have about 14,000 global participants, including pharmaceutical companies and investment firms, from more than 50 countries. The conference has been taking place since 1983.

South Korean companies attending the event are Samsung Biologics Co., Hanmi Pharmaceutical Co., Dong-A ST Co., Celltrion, and Lotte Biologics Co., all of which are expected to introduce independently developed obesity treatments at the conference.

Hanmi Pharm will present its major pipeline, including the obesity project Hanmi Obesity Pipeline. Its obesity treatment Efpeglenatide, currently under development, is on the verge of starting a Phase 3 Clinical trial in Korea.

More than 7 percent of the patients that received 6 milligrams of the treatment once a week showed a weight loss effect during the Phase 2 trial.

Hanmi Pharm will also introduce a series of five therapies, including Glucagon, which increases energy metabolism, and next-generation triple-action agent LA-GLP/GIP/GCG.

Dong-A ST, a company specializing in prescription drugs under Dong-A Socio Group, also plans to actively explain its in-house developed obesity treatment to investors during the conference.

Dong-A ST is developing the obesity treatment DA-1726 via its subsidiary NeuroBo Pharmaceuticals. NeuroBo recently applied for the global Phase 1 Investigational New Drug (IND) application with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to develop DA-1726 as an obesity treatment.

DA-1726 showed weight loss effects in obese animal models similar to the LGp-1 analogue Semaglutide, even with a similar food intake.

In addition to obesity treatments, local pharmaceutical and biotech companies are expected to disclose various other innovations.

Samsung Biologics will present its achievements from 2023 and future plans on Tuesday. After investing in Araris Biotech, a company developing antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) therapies, via the Life Science Fund it created in collaboration with Samsung C&T in 2023, Samsung Biologics plans to build manufacturing facilities with the goal of starting ADC production in 2024.

Celltrion will introduce its major pipeline, including biosimilars, on Wednesday., Celltrion received FTA approval for the new drug sales of Zymfentra, a subcutaneous injection form of Remsima, in October 2023, which became the first subcutaneous injection approved in the U.S.

SK bioscience will conduct one-on-one meetings with investors who received an official invitation. The company is mulling the construction of a global R&D center in Songdo, Incheon, to enhance the global competitiveness of its contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) products.

Yuhan Corp. will describe its major pipeline, including the novel anti-cancer drug Leclaza (Lazertinib).