Roche shares fall after poster highlights effects of obesity drug

Roche has been throwing itself into the hottest field in pharmaceuticals — obesity drugs — following a series of trial failures in cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.

Shares of Roche fell after a poster highlighted side effects in an early-stage study of the Swiss pharmaceutical company’s experimental obesity medicine.

The poster, released as part of this week’s European Association for the Study of Diabetes annual meeting, showed side effects including nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea for Roche’s injectable drug, CT-388. The stock fell as much as 4.5% in Zurich on Monday.

“The gastrointestinal profile of Roche’s CT-388 for obesity may have pressured the company’s shares,” Bloomberg Intelligence analysts wrote on Monday.

The “trial poster shows slightly high rates of diarrhoea, and severe-adverse events details when presented will be studied.” 

Roche has been throwing itself into the hottest field in pharmaceuticals — obesity drugs — following a series of trial failures in cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. The company obtained CT-388 as well as an experimental obesity pill in its $3.1bn (€2.8bn) purchase of Carmot Therapeutics.

“The safety and tolerability profile was consistent with other incretin-based therapies at a similar stage of development and typically improves with slower titrations over time,” Roche said in an email Monday. 

“There were no treatment-related study discontinuations and no unexpected efficacy loss.” 

Bloomberg