Competition for obesity treatments is shifting from “how much do you lose” to “how do you lose?” If ..

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*It has been translated using AI

Competition for obesity treatments is shifting from “how much do you lose” to “how do you lose?” If Hugo Bee and Mountaineero have grown the market with strong weight loss effects, the next place to go depends on how much you can reduce fat but keep your muscles. This is why Genentech, a subsidiary of Roche Group, bet up to $2.3 billion on Hanmi Pharmaceutical‘s new obesity drug HM17321, which is in the first phase of clinical trials.
According to the pharmaceutical and bio industries on the 24th, HM17321 differs from existing obesity treatments in the way they lose weight.
Novo Nordisk’s “Wigobi” and Eli Lilly’s “Munzaro” use the action of hormones called GLP-1, GLP-1, and GIP, respectively. “I’m full” is a method of reducing food intake by delivering a feeling of fullness to the brain and suppressing appetite.
◆ Hanmi Pharmaceutical Supplements GLP-1 Limits
The problem is that fat is not the only thing that disappears when you lose weight because it restricts the nutrition supply itself. In the STEP 1 clinical sub-analysis of Hugo Bee, the amount of fat decreased by 19.3% after administration of semaglutide, and the amount of fat, including muscle and body water, also decreased by 9.7%. In the SURMOUNT-1 clinical sub-study of Mountaineer, about 25% of the body weight lost to terzepatide was reduced in lean fat. The term lean fat refers to muscles, body moisture, and bones excluding fat.
HM17321 exported by Korea and the U.S. is expected to reduce fat and prevent muscle loss. It is a peptide drug made similar to Urocortin 2 (UCN2), a protein present in our body, selectively activates a receptor called ‘CRF2. Unlike conventional obesity drugs that focus on reducing appetite, they aim to minimize muscle loss while losing weight by acting directly on the metabolism of fat and muscles. In a non-clinical study, Hanmi Pharmaceutical confirmed that obese animals administered HM17321 lost weight and fat, while increasing lean and skeletal muscle mass.
Genentech is known to have appreciated such a scarce mechanism of action. Global pharmaceutical companies are scrambling to develop drugs that prevent muscle loss in the process of treating obesity, but it is difficult to find a clinical-stage obesity treatment that increases muscles while reducing fat using the UCN2·CRF2 pathway like HM17321. Hanmi Pharmaceutical aims to develop HM17321 as a “first-in-class new drug.”
Competitors are choosing a method of blocking the myostatin and activine pathway, which acts as a ‘break’ that inhibits muscle growth. Global biotech Regeneron is conducting phase 2 clinical trials in which the myostatin inhibitor “trevorgrumab” is used in combination with semaglutide, a component of the stomach, and a method of adding the activin A inhibitor “Garetosmab” is also being tested.

◆ Experts “helping elderly patients”
Another advantage of HM17321 is that it can be used in combination with existing obesity treatments. Since it is a peptide-based treatment, it may be used in combination with incretin-based treatments such as GLP-1 or developed as a fixed-dose complex (FDC) in the future. HM17321 is a key candidate for the “H.O.P.” project, which Hanmi Obesity Pipeline,” which Hanmi Pharmaceutical Vice Chairman Lim Joo-hyun has promoted by using obesity and metabolic diseases as the next-generation growth engine.
Hanmi Pharmaceutical unveiled HM17321 at the American Society of Obesity’s annual conference in November 2024 and received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for phase 1 clinical trials in November last year.
Analysts say that Vice Chairman Lim’s R&D strategy for obesity and metabolic diseases, which he has built with Epeglenatide and HM15275 due to the export of Genentech technology, has also produced results in the global market.
Oh Sang-woo, a professor of family medicine at Dongguk University Ilsan Hospital (director of the Center for Obesity Metabolic Nutrition), said, “It is not necessarily a bad thing for obese patients to lose some muscles, but it can be a problem for those who already have little muscle mass.”
Kim Min-sun, chairman of the Korean Society of Obesity (Professor of Endocrine Medicine at Asan Medical Center), expected that if the new drug is commercialized, it will be a customized treatment specialized for specific patient groups such as “muscle-reducing obesity” patients and elderly women.
[Wang Hae Na / Reporter Go Jae Won]
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