Roche targets more than $3 billion in annual obesity sales

By Ludwig Burger

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Roche said on Monday that three early-stage obesity and diabetes drug candidates from its acquisition of Carmot Therapeutics have the combined potential of more than 3 billion Swiss francs ($3.6 billion) in annual sales.

In a presentation to investors, the Swiss drugmaker said the revenue projection applies on aggregate to weekly injection CT-388 – which is similar to Eli Lilly’s Zepbound – and daily pill CT-996 as well as CT-868 against type 1 diabetes.

In total, at least seven drugs in Roche’s development pipeline have peak sales potential of more than 3 billion francs, it said.

Last December Roche agreed to purchase unlisted Carmot for $2.7 billion upfront, joining a list of contestants seeking to challenge the dominant makers of weight-loss drugs Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly.

Initial promising trial read-outs on weight loss from CT-388 and CT-996 earlier this year boosted Roche’s share price but more detailed results on side effects earlier this month weighed heavily on the stock.

The Swiss company, which was holding an investor event on its pharmaceuticals unit on Monday, earlier said it aims to slash the development costs of drugs it brings to market and speed up their development time by 2030.

Average development costs of a drug that is launched should decline by 20% and the time from early drug discovery to the end of Phase 3 testing on humans would be cut by 40%, according to presentation slides posted on the company’s website.

($1 = 0.8429 Swiss francs)

(Reporting by Ludwig Burger, Editing by Friederike Heine and Susan Fenton)