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STAT+: Novo Nordisk sets sights on new type of oral obesity drug
Novo Nordisk has licensed an oral obesity drug that works via an uncommon mechanism and may help patients maintain their weight loss when they stop taking Wegovy.
Novo Nordisk has signed another obesity pact, this one for an oral drug that works via an uncommon mechanism and could potentially help patients maintain their weight loss when they stop taking Novo’s blockbuster obesity drug.
The Danish drugmaker is licensing a drug called LX9851 from Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, according to an announcement Friday. Lexicon could receive up to $75 million in upfront and near-term payments, if it meets certain development goals, and is eligible to earn up to $1 billion from later R&D, regulatory, and sales milestones.
Lexicon’s drug is an oral small molecule that blocks Acyl-CoA Synthetase 5, or ACSL5, a metabolic pathway that’s thought to be involved in energy expenditure and fat accumulation.
