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.
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.
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.
This is subscriber-walled, but the full article is available here:
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
FWIW, Novo Nordisk also tried to kill their GLP-1 effort several times according to the project lead, Lotte Bjerre Knudsen: https://archive.is/oLnBl
In large organizations, I guess a big chunk of success comes from being able to navigate all these political ups and downs.
I wonder how many other great medical innovations have disappeared because of such bureaucracy.
How long do you have?
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/vaccine-beer-polyomaviru...
Self-injecting feels like a scary, painful, dangerous procedure and becomes completely boring by the third repetition.
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.
Do you still take it? I'm looking for some more information on compounded GLP-1 and their safety.
It really helps that the needles are hair-thin and short.
Are you using this?
Yes.
Isn't there some long term harm to the skin if you do this often?
Seems completely negligible to the normal amount of tiny cuts and scrapes you accumulate on any given day.
To the skin? Probably not.
Heroin addicts and presumably anyone else who frequently injects into a vein can cause damage to the veins.
I concur, exactly the way I felt before and after.
It's worth bearing in mind that the reality of self-injector pens with tiny needles today is not the reality of 30 years ago.
https://archive.ph/2024.09.09-143955/https://www.statnews.co...
(2024)
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.
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.
Nice.
This tells me that research on the drug is old and that increases security on its use.
It's so old, the patent is nearing expiration.