The News
Pfizer is currently testing three new weight-loss drugs, the CEO Albert Bourla told Semafor.
Two of the drugs would use the same GLP-1 technology as rival Novo Nordisk’s brand Ozempic, while a third uses a different mechanism that is under wraps, Bourla said at a Semafor business event on Monday. He did not elaborate on how this third drug might work; the new mechanism has not been previously disclosed publicly.
The company, which developed some of the leading COVID-19 vaccines, whiffed on its first attempt to get in on the weight-loss drug boom, but Bourla said Pfizer plans to release data later this year showing its the progress it has made on at least one, Danuglipron.
Bourla predicted that as more companies wade into the market, the high price of drugs like Ozempic will drop.
The remarks offered a very different outlook to that of COVID vaccines. Bourla said he anticipates that even as the population’s immunity to COVID-19 wanes over time, people will remain reluctant to get boosters.
“The utilization of vaccines is way smaller than what I was expecting it to be,” he said. “I don’t think that this will change dramatically over the next few years.”