The decision marks a blow to Pfizer's ambitions to become an early contender in the lucrative market for weight-loss drugs. The company's shares dropped 2.9% to $29.59 in premarket trading.
Pfizer said it would instead focus on a once-daily, modified release version of danuglipron and "gathering the data to understand its potential profile". Data on how this version interacts with the human body is expected sometime next year.
Observed mean weight loss in the trial, across doses, ranged between 6.9% and 11.7% in patients on the drug at 32 weeks, versus weight gain of 1.4% for placebo.
That compared to a nearly 15% drop observed with the highest dose of Eli Lilly's once-daily experimental orforglipron pill after 36 weeks of treatment in a trial of obese or overweight patients.
Pfizer said while the common side effects in the twice-daily version study were mild, it saw high rates of those events in the trial. High discontinuation rates, greater than 50%, were seen across all doses compared to about 40% with placebo.
It said that up to 73% of patients in the trial had nausea; up to 47% vomiting and up to 25% diarrhea. However, no new safety signals were observed in the study, Pfizer said.
