Boulder, Colorado-based Enveda has reported Phase I results for ENV-308, an oral small molecule designed to mimic Lac-Phe, a hormone the body produces during high-intensity exercise, positioning the drug as a potential maintenance therapy for patients who discontinue GLP-1 receptor agonists and subsequently regain weight
The Phase I trial enrolled 88 healthy adult volunteers and was designed to assess safety, tolerability, and pharmacokinetics across the full dose range. No serious adverse events, discontinuations, or dose interruptions were reported. Enveda reported no serious adverse events, treatment discontinuations, or dose interruptions and highlighted a low incidence of gastrointestinal adverse events. Circulating leptin was included as an exploratory pharmacodynamic marker, with Enveda reporting reductions following treatment that were greatest among participants with higher baseline leptin levels. The clinical significance of the finding is unclear because the study was not designed to assess weight loss or other efficacy outcomes.
ENV-308 was identified through Enveda’s AI-enabled platform and engineered to reproduce the effects of Lac-Phe, a pseudo-dipeptide hormone first characterized in 2022 by Stanford’s Jonathan Long and colleagues for its role in exercise-driven appetite suppression and metabolic regulation. Lac-Phe itself is cleared too rapidly to function as a drug; ENV-308 is an orally bioavailable analog intended for daily dosing. In preclinical studies, the compound preserved lean muscle mass during weight loss and prevented weight regain after withdrawal of weight-loss therapy — findings the company said will now be tested in clinical populations. Enveda also reported that animal data suggest ENV-308 may be additive to GLP-1 therapies, potentially allowing reduced dosing frequency and improved tolerability when combined, though these observations remain unvalidated in humans.
The planned Phase II study will provide the first test of ENV-308’s central therapeutic proposition in patients: whether an oral Lac-Phe mimetic can maintain weight loss after GLP-1 therapy is withdrawn. The weight-maintenance and lean-mass effects reported to date remain limited to preclinical models
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