An oral medicine to treat Type 2 diabetes would be a huge big deal, replacing insulin and other injections with a once-daily pill. Overcoming insulin resistance and promoting weight loss combined will be an even bigger deal, if this new class of drugs passes several rounds of clinical trials and gets approved by various countries.
Reuters: Structure Therapeutics surges as early data from obesity pill tops expectations
Stat (paywalled): Structure Therapeutics GLP-1 pill cuts blood sugar, weight in early diabetes study
But there is competition, and, besides,
FirstWord Pharma: Structure's shares sink on mixed data for oral GLP-1 drug
Analysts said investors were hoping GSBR-1290 would see weight loss results in the ballpark of Eli Lilly's orforglipron, an oral drug in the same class.
Meanwhile, analyst Evan David Seigerman of BMO Capital Markets noted that among diabetics, GSBR-1290 lagged 12-week data with Eli Lilly's orforglipron, which had shown placebo-adjusted reductions in HbA1c of 1.02% to 1.37%, and decreases in body weight of 4.6% to 7.1%.
I write about economics, but I do not pretend to understand corporate finance, and will not attempt to explain these conflicting market reactions.