Boehringer Ingelheim is beginning an early-stage trial for a triple agonist candidate for obesity that it’s developing with Danish biotech Gubra.
The drug, dubbed BI 3034701, will be tested in a 124-patient Phase 1 trial with two parts: The first arm will include healthy men between 18 and 55 years old, and the second will enroll men and women who are overweight or obese but otherwise healthy. Participants will either get the triple agonist injection or a placebo. The trial is expected to finish in the second half of 2025.
“Although early stage, this is another step in our comprehensive strategy to improve the quality and length of lives of people living with interconnected cardiovascular, renal and metabolic diseases,” Søren Tullin, Boehringer Ingelheim’s global head of cardiometabolic diseases research, said in a statement. “BI 3034701 is the second out of several joint R&D programs with Gubra advancing into the clinic.”
Companies are increasingly looking to advance obesity and MASH therapies that target more than one hormone. Eli Lilly’s “triple-G” drug, which targets GLP-1, GIP and glucagon, is currently in three Phase 3 studies. Retatrutide, a weekly injectable, already showed about 24% weight reduction in a trial last year. Lilly is also testing whether retatrutide can treat sleep apnea and knee osteoarthritis.
Gubra designed the drug in-house and will get a milestone payment for the trial start, though BI is responsible for further development and global commercialization.
This is BI and Gubra’s second obesity collaboration. The companies unveiled early-stage results from another candidate last year, a neuropeptide Y receptor type 2 agonist, that showed decreased energy intake and slower gastric emptying. That drug is in another Phase 1 trial, where the companies are trying it out in combination with GLP-1s — either Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy or Boehringer and Zealand Pharma’s late-stage candidate survodutide.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct the targets for BI 3034701. The companies have not disclosed the targets for the triple agonist.