In a setback, liver risks force Pfizer to drop obesity pill

Pfizer Inc. will stop developing an obesity pill that was closely watched by investors, a severe blow in its efforts to compete with blockbuster weight-loss shots from Novo Nordisk A/S and Eli Lilly & Co.

- Bloomberg

The treatment, called danuglipron, was linked to a potentially drug-related liver injury in one patient enrolled in a clinical trial, Pfizer said in a statement. As a result, the company won't advance the once-daily medicine into the final stage of testing and will instead invest in earlier-stage treatments for obesity.

Pfizer has made competing in the obesity market central to its post-covid comeback plan. As demand for coronavirus vaccines and therapies ebbs, the business of selling weight-loss treatments has boomed—and is expected to reach $130 billion by the end of the decade.