Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals unveiled a new RNAi-based obesity program on Wednesday that it believes could be “gentler” than currently available GLP-1 products.
The target, ALK7, is a receptor on the surface of fat-storing cells called adipocytes. Arrowhead’s ARO-ALK7 essentially works by blocking messages that tell adipocytes to store fat. The company wants to take that candidate and its previously announced obesity program ARO-INHBE into the clinic in early 2025. ARO-INHBE goes after a different target in the same pathway as ARO-ALK7.
“There’s a lot of room in this market,” head of investor relations Vincent Anzalone told Endpoints News on Wednesday. “There will be lots of winners here. We’ve only seen one class of winners so far.”
The race to join Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly’s obesity blockbusters is becoming increasingly crowded, with multiple companies reporting promising mid-stage and early results, and large drugmakers like AstraZeneca and Roche announcing ambitious plans.
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