Boehringer Ingelheim reports encouraging data from late-stage trials of survodutide, an experimental weekly injection demonstrating significant weight and glycemic improvements in participants with obesity and type 2 diabetes, with ongoing efforts to optimise tolerability and understand body composition effects.
Boehringer Ingelheim has reported encouraging late-stage results for survodutide, an experimental weekly injection being developed for obesity and type 2 diabetes, after a phase 3 trial showed participants lost as much as 13.1% of their body weight over 76 weeks. The company said the findings were presented at the 62nd Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes in Milan and published at the same time in The New England Journal of Medicine.
The SYNCHRONIZE-2 study met both of its main goals. According to the trial data, the higher of the two tested doses produced the strongest effect, with a placebo-adjusted weight loss of 3.1% over the study period. Nearly four in five participants taking survodutide achieved at least a 5% reduction in body weight, while improvements were also seen in waist circumference and blood sugar control.
Boehringer said the drug lowered HbA1c, a measure of long-term blood glucose, by as much as 1.21 percentage points from a starting level of 7.4%, compared with a drop of just 0.03 points on placebo. Waist circumference fell by 11.1cm, versus 3.5cm in the control group. In a separate analysis of the results, the company said weight loss was 9.8% with the 6mg dose and 8.2% with the 3.6mg dose when results were assessed regardless of whether participants stayed on treatment throughout.
The treatment was generally associated with gastrointestinal side effects, including nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and constipation, and these were mostly mild to moderate. Still, discontinuation because of stomach-related effects was notably higher than with placebo, with most dropouts occurring during dose escalation. Boehringer said later studies are using more flexible dose-titration schedules in an effort to improve tolerability.
The company also pointed to signs that survodutide may influence body composition beyond scale weight alone. In a substudy from the earlier SYNCHRONIZE-1 trial, MRI scans suggested preferential reductions in visceral and liver fat, while muscle made up no more than 10% of total tissue lost. That matters because excess visceral fat is closely linked to metabolic risk, and liver fat is a key target in the company’s broader development programme, which also includes trials in metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis. Boehringer expects further data later this year, including results from its cardiovascular outcomes study.
Disclaimer: This content is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical judgment, advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
