Advancing obesity treatments through innovations in the design and manufacturing of therapeutic peptides
Søren Østergaard
Abstract
INTRODUCTION: In recent years, progress in developing peptide-based therapeutics from natural peptide hormones has significantly advanced obesity treatment. By harnessing the body's natural peptide hormonal mechanisms, these GLP-1-based therapies have achieved impressive weight loss of 15-25%, once thought impossible, while also demonstrating excellent safety. Such weight loss levels were previously believed to be only achievable through bariatric surgery, marking a significant shift in managing diabetes, obesity, and related health issues. AREAS COVERED: This review explores how the emergence of second-generation peptide therapeutics was driven by advances in fatty acid technology combined with backbone engineering to achieve once-weekly dosing intervals, as well as by unimolecular dual and poly-agonists targeting pathways beyond GLP-1 receptor signaling. EXPERT OPINION: Although these innovations offer renewed hope in the fight against obesity, they also pose challenges. Barriers to widespread adoption and access still exist, especially in manufacturing peptide therapeutics, which need significant investments in production infrastructure to reach more than hundreds of millions of patients worldwide.