Roche Discontinues Obesity Drug CT-173 from $2.7B Carmot Acquisition, Citing Lack of Competitiveness
核心洞察
Roche has terminated development of CT-173, a PYY (搜索) analog obesity (搜索) drug acquired through its $2.7 billion Carmot Therapeutics (搜索) acquisition in December 2023, before entering Phase I trials.
The company cited insufficient developability and competitiveness criteria when assessed against internal standards, despite previous preclinical data showing promising weight loss results when combined with CT-388.
Roche maintains confidence in its broader obesity (搜索) portfolio, particularly CT-388 which demonstrated 18.8% body weight reduction in Phase Ib trials, with Phase III-enabling readouts expected by year-end.
Roche has discontinued development of CT-173, an investigational PYY (搜索) analog for obesity (搜索) treatment, marking a significant shift in the company's approach to assets acquired through its $2.7 billion Carmot Therapeutics (搜索) acquisition in December 2023. The decision was announced during the company's second-quarter earnings call on Thursday, with plans to initiate Phase I studies this year now abandoned.
Teresa Graham, CEO of Roche's Pharmaceuticals Division, explained that the molecule failed to meet the company's internal assessment criteria. "When we bounced it up against our bar assessment, the criteria for developability and competitiveness just weren't there," Graham said during the presentation.
Promising Preclinical Data Insufficient for Advancement
The discontinuation represents a rapid reversal from Roche's previous enthusiasm for the asset. In September 2024, the company highlighted CT-173's potential at an investor event, presenting preclinical data that Manu Chakravarthy, global head of cardiovascular, renal and metabolism product development at Roche, described as "very exciting."
The preclinical studies demonstrated that combining CT-173 with CT-388, a dual agonist of the GLP-1 (搜索) and GIP (搜索) receptors, helped break weight loss plateaus in mouse models. According to Chakravarthy, the combination drove "very deep and fairly sustained reduction in body weight, way above and beyond either agent alone." The drug combination also resulted in slower weight rebound after stopping treatment compared with individual agents alone.
Chakravarthy had positioned the findings as potentially addressing "the big question" in obesity (搜索) treatment: whether it's possible to reset body weight at a lower level than the plateau reached by GLP-1 (搜索) drugs and other incretins. "On the plateau, when you treat these animals that are overweight or actually obese in this case, you actually drive even further weight loss," he explained at the September event.
Obesity Portfolio Remains Intact
Despite the CT-173 discontinuation, Graham emphasized that the decision "has very little impact on the overall obesity (搜索) portfolio." She described CT-173 as "a very early-stage program" and maintained that Roche remains "very confident" in its obesity assets, characterizing the portfolio as "potentially best-in-disease and highly competitive."
The centerpiece of Roche's obesity (搜索) pipeline remains CT-388, which was the primary driver of the Carmot acquisition. Phase Ib data released in May 2024 showed that CT-388, administered once weekly via subcutaneous injection, could lower body weight by 18.8% versus placebo. The company expects to receive Phase III-enabling readouts for CT-388 by the end of the year.
Graham explained that Roche's pipeline is strategically positioned to capitalize on different obesity (搜索) market subsegments. "Whether that's into comorbidities, whether that's into the amount of weight loss... we have a portfolio that's uniquely designed to take advantage of that further segmentation," she added.
Broader R&D Portfolio Optimization
The CT-173 termination is part of a larger portfolio rationalization effort. CEO Thomas Schinecker discussed the company's approach to prioritization, explaining that Roche has increased the value per pipeline program and freed up resources for new assets and high-value activities in areas such as obesity (搜索) and Alzheimer's disease.
Alongside CT-173, Roche discontinued four Phase I cancer programs. These include eciskafusp alfa, a fusion protein combining an anti-PD-1 (搜索) antibody with an engineered IL-2 variant; RG6614, a USP1 inhibitor acquired from KSQ Therapeutics (搜索) in 2023; and a WRN (搜索) inhibitor that has returned to Vividion Therapeutics (搜索)' pipeline.
Financial Performance Context
The portfolio decisions were announced as part of Roche's strong second-quarter financial results, with the company reporting 15.504 billion Swiss Francs (nearly $19.6 billion) in earnings, representing 8% year-on-year growth. Ocrevus, indicated for multiple sclerosis (搜索), led product sales with approximately $2.18 billion in the quarter, up 10% year-on-year. Other top performers included Hemlibra for hemophilia A (搜索) (nearly $1.6 billion) and the eye injection Vabysmo (roughly $1.32 billion).