Roche shares obesity drug study side effects with Investing.com

Investing.com — Shares of Roche (SIX: ) fell on Thursday after reports from an early-stage study of an obesity drug showed a high rate of temporary side effects.

At 4:44 am (0844 GMT), Roche was trading 4 percent lower at CHF 277.60.

Roche said all 25 study participants, including those who received a placebo, experienced mild to moderate adverse events, mostly of a gastrointestinal nature, at a conference of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes in Madrid.

This is consistent with side effects seen with similar weight loss medications.

“In our view, investor enthusiasm for Roche’s obesity franchise may be taking a pause, given that both acquired assets showed higher-than-anticipated GI side effects, albeit both supported by aggressive titration programs,” said analysts at at Jefferies in a note.

Roche reported that CT-996, a once-daily pill, achieved an average weight loss of 6.1 percent compared to placebo over four weeks in obese patients without diabetes.

However, this result was based on a small sample of only six patients, highlighting the preliminary nature of the data.

The company explained that the high incidence of adverse reactions may be due to the accelerated dose escalation used in the Phase I trial, and plans to conduct additional studies with longer durations and slower dose escalations to better assess the drug’s safety and efficacy.