Roche shares jump after weight-loss pill shows promise in study

An oral medicine is one of the as-yet-untapped areas in a weight-loss market that Goldman Sachs estimates may reach €119bn annually by the end of the decade

Pfizer, Eli Lilly and AstraZeneca are among the other drugmakers also working on needle-free weight-loss alternatives. Picture: Bloomberg

Roche shares jumped after its experimental weight loss pill showed meaningful weight-reduction in an early stage study among obesity patients, setting up the Swiss drugmaker as a challenger in the lucrative field.

Patients who took the oral medication, CT-996, once a day for four weeks lost on average more than 7% of their starting weight, compared with a little over 1% weight loss in patients who received a placebo, the Swiss drugmaker said in a statement.