Pfizer’s Oral GLP-1 Push, Lilly Vs. Novo and PBMs Under Pressure

Pfizer stole the show late last week with the announcement that it will move forward with its oral GLP-1 analog danuglipron. While Pfizer may hope to advance in the already crowded race to bring an oral GLP-1 to market, some analysts reacted to the news with caution, mainly due to lack of data. Meanwhile, in the injectable GLP-1 space, it’s primarily a two-horse race between Novo and Lilly. While Novo had a two-year head start, Lilly has been picking up ground since the November 2023 approval of Zepbound (tirzepatide). A recent observational study saw tirzepatide outperform Novo’s semaglutide in helping patients to lose weight, and some analysts predict Lilly will indeed gain majority market share within a few years in part due to this potential efficacy advantage, though manufacturing is a complicating factor that currently favors Novo. Separately, the drug pricing debates heat up after the Federal Trade Commission released a scathing report last week about the business practices of pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), noting how they charge payers higher prices than what they pay to pharmacies, profiting at the expense of patients and pharmacies. But biopharma firms must share the blame, and the Senate last week unanimously passed a bipartisan bill that would limit their use of patent thickets to maintain exclusivity, thereby making it easier for generic competitors to enter the market. Finally, several neurology-focused companies are hoping to bring new drugs to the market. BioSpace highlights five key neuro readouts to watch in the second half of 2024 in the Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia, depression and rare disease spaces.