Obesity market news — August 4, 2026
The defining event of the week came on July 31, when Novo Nordisk's experimental anti-inflammatory heart drug ziltivekimab missed its primary endpoint in ZEUS, the first of three Phase 3 trials to report. In more than 6,300 patients with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease and elevated inflammation, the drug did not significantly reduce major adverse cardiovascular events versus placebo. The shares fell close to 9 percent and roughly 30 billion dollars of market value evaporated in a day. Novo says its 2026 adjusted operating profit outlook is unchanged, but a non-cash impairment charge will land in the third quarter. Two further trials continue: HERMES in heart failure and ARTEMIS in acute myocardial infarction. The strategic reading matters more than the share price: ziltivekimab was Novo's clearest attempt to build a cardiometabolic franchise that does not depend on GLP-1, and that diversification is now a year or more further away.
Both Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk report second-quarter results on August 5, making this the single most consequential day of the quarter for the obesity category. The set-up has changed: after two years of profit warnings, leadership upheaval and a sliding share price, Novo is clawing its way back, with prescription data suggesting its oral Wegovy pill is holding its lead over Lilly's more recently launched Foundayo. Consensus expects roughly 20.3 billion dollars of revenue from Lilly, with the Mounjaro and Zepbound franchise alone above 13 billion. Watch the guidance more than the headline numbers. The stakes rose sharply on July 31: Novo now walks into its results five days after the ziltivekimab failure, so management will be pressed on how much of the company's future rests on obesity alone.
On July 28 Altimmune reported positive topline results from its RECLAIM Phase 2 trial of pemvidutide in moderate to severe alcohol use disorder, and the shares jumped more than 15 percent in premarket trading. The trial met its primary endpoint of reducing heavy drinking days and also hit secondary endpoints the FDA recognises as registrational, including a two-level reduction in WHO risk drinking levels. Patients also lost a placebo-adjusted 9.1 percent of body weight over 24 weeks with no sign of a plateau. The significance runs wider than one small-cap: this is among the clearest evidence yet that incretin drugs may treat addiction, not just weight.
Eli Lilly (LLY): Lilly reports second-quarter results on August 5. Zepbound still holds close to 70 percent of new prescriptions in the branded obesity market, and analysts expect the combined Mounjaro and Zepbound franchise to clear 13 billion dollars for the quarter. The open question is Foundayo (orforglipron), Lilly's oral GLP-1, whose uptake has trailed the oral Wegovy pill launched a few months earlier. Lilly is also defending the advertising suit Novo filed on July 21 and escalated on July 24 with a request for a preliminary injunction.
Novo Nordisk (NVO): Novo also reports on August 5, and the narrative has turned. After two punishing years, the oral Wegovy pill is outselling expectations and holding its prescription lead over Foundayo; in the first quarter it had already delivered the strongest GLP-1 launch on record in the United States and prompted management to narrow its guidance for the annual decline. Oral Wegovy has since been approved in the EU, opening a second growth lane. Novo is simultaneously pressing its advertising lawsuit against Lilly. The counterweight is the July 31 ziltivekimab failure: the obesity business is recovering, but the attempt to build a second, non-GLP-1 leg has just been set back badly.
Altimmune (ALT): The clear winner of the week. RECLAIM, a roughly 100-patient Phase 2 trial of pemvidutide 2.4 mg dosed weekly for 24 weeks, met its primary endpoint on heavy drinking days on July 28 and hit registrational secondary endpoints, with almost two thirds of patients dropping two levels on the WHO risk drinking scale. Weight loss reached 9.1 percent placebo-adjusted and had not plateaued. Pemvidutide already holds FDA Breakthrough Therapy designation in MASH and Fast Track in alcohol use disorder.
Viking Therapeutics (VKTX): Viking closed the second quarter with 502 million dollars in cash, enough to fund the programme without near-term dilution. The Phase 3 VANQUISH 1 and 2 trials of subcutaneous VK2735 are fully enrolled, and the Phase 3 start for the oral formulation is guided to the fourth quarter. The event that matters this quarter is the VK2735 maintenance dosing read-out, the first look at how durable the weight loss is once the acute dosing window ends. A Phase 1 study of the amylin agonist VK3019 is also running.
Amgen (AMGN): No fresh data this week. MariTide continues through the Phase 3 MARITIME programme, where the differentiator is monthly rather than weekly dosing, plus separate trials in cardiovascular disease, heart failure and obstructive sleep apnoea. The Phase 2 read-out showed up to about 20 percent weight loss at 52 weeks without a plateau, but also high rates of discontinuation and vomiting, which is why the Phase 3 dosing schedule was revised.
Zealand Pharma (ZEAL): Quiet week. Petrelintide, the once-weekly amylin analogue partnered with Roche, is heading into Phase 3 for chronic weight management in the second half of 2026 after the Phase 2 ZUPREME-1 trial produced double-digit weight loss with tolerability close to placebo. That tolerability profile is the whole thesis: amylin is being positioned less as a rival to GLP-1 and more as a gentler foundation therapy.
Structure Therapeutics (GPCR): No news of substance this week. Aleniglipron, the company's oral small-molecule GLP-1, has positive end-of-Phase-2 feedback from the FDA, and the registrational Phase 3 programme in chronic weight management is guided to start in the third quarter. Structure is the smallest of the credible oral GLP-1 challengers, so execution on that timeline matters more to it than to anyone else on this list.