STAT+: Veru says its drug preserved lean mass in patients taking Wegovy

Veru said Monday that its investigational drug helped preserve lean mass in patients taking the obesity treatment Wegovy, though some experts were skeptical that the topline results were adequate to prove the benefits of the drug.

In a Phase 2b trial, older patients taking Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Veru’s experimental drug, called enobosarm, lost on average 1.2% of lean mass after 16 weeks, compared with a 4.1% loss in patients taking Wegovy and placebo. Veru said this difference was statistically significant.

The trial, which enrolled 168 patients, tested a 3-mg and 6-mg dose of enobosarm, but the company grouped all patients who took enobosarm together in reporting its topline readout. CEO Mitchell Steiner told STAT that the 6-mg group did not appear to have greater lean mass preservation than the 3-mg group, but said that the company had expected the lack of dose response since previous studies suggested that effects on lean mass would max out at the 3-mg dose.

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