Hannah Kuchler

Pfizer is abandoning its plans for a weight loss pill to be taken twice a day after trials showed it caused significant side effects, in a setback to the US drugmaker’s effort to enter the fast-growing market for obesity treatments. Shares in Pfizer fell 4 per cent in pre-market trading in New York on Friday after the group said that more than half of the participants in its clinical trial for the new drug had dropped out because of side effects. The mid-stage trial showed the pill, danuglipron, caused high rates of gastrointestinal side effects, with up to 73 per cent of participants taking the drug experiencing nausea and up to 47 per cent vomiting, the company said.

AstraZeneca has agreed to buy its first vaccine company in a deal worth up to $1.1bn, as the UK pharma group expands the infectious disease division it set up during the coronavirus pandemic. The Anglo-Swedish drugmaker said on Tuesday that it had struck a deal for Seattle-based Icosavax, which has a potential vaccine for two common respiratory diseases that can cause severe illness in older adults: respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and human metapneumovirus. If it succeeds in a phase 3 trial, the vaccine would compete with approved RSV shots from GSK and Pfizer, and potentially one from Moderna.

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