(Reuters) -Veru said on Monday its experimental drug, in combination with Novo Nordisk's weight-loss treatment Wegovy, helped preserve muscle in older patients with obesity, meeting the main goal of a mid-stage study.
Shares of the drug developer, however, fell 37% to 76 cents in premarket trading, as Veru did not disclose safety data from the study. It plans to disclose the details in April, once the extension phase of the study is completed.
The study tested Veru's oral drug, enobosarm, in patients aged 60 and above, who are at greater risk for falls and fractures. The drug targets androgen receptors present in skeletal muscle, which play a role in body development and reproductive health.
Patients who received enobosarm and Wegovy lost 71% less lean muscle on average than those who received Wegovy alone over 16 weeks, the company said. Those who received the enobosarm and Wegovy combination also showed more selective and greater loss of fat mass.
Veru is testing whether enobosarm can prevent the fat and weight gain that occurs after discontinuing treatment with Wegovy over 12 weeks in the extension phase.
"The expectation is that when patients are treated longer with enobosarm, which results in greater loss of adiposity, there would also be a profoundly greater weight reduction than with semaglutide (Wegovy) alone," CEO Gary Barnette said.
The company said data so far had not "shown significant differences" from previous studies of enobosarm, a drug that has previously been tested for muscle wasting in cancer patients.
In the mid-stage study, 19.4% of the patients who received enobosarm and Wegovy lost at least 10% of their stair climb power - fewer than the 42.6% of patients on Wegovy alone.
The company plans to test the effects of its drug on stair climb power in older patients in the late-stage study.
(Reporting by Bhanvi Satija in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur, Devika Syamnath and Anil D'Silva)