Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer on Saturday released data on an experimental obesity drug it acquired through the purchase of Metsera last year. The drug had a “similar side-effect profile as rival Novo Nordisk’s weekly injection Wegovy,” Reuters reports. Pfizer presented data on Saturday that showed a monthly dose of an experimental obesity drug it acquired through its purchase of Metsera last year had a similar side-effect profile as rival Novo Nordisk's weekly injection Wegovy. https://t.co/bCuQQ7AkyW — Reuters Legal (@ReutersLegal) June 6, 2026 Reuters explained further: The drugmaker hopes the compound, called berobenatide, can be the first GLP-1 weight-loss drug offered as a monthly shot as the company works ​to differentiate the compound from blockbuster drugs like Wegovy and Eli Lilly’s Zepbound. In February, Pfizer ​said the compound showed up to 12.3% weight loss in patients without diabetes in ⁠its mid-stage VESPER-3 trial. Analysts are looking to the drug’s side-effect profile to assess whether it will be ​commercially viable. Pfizer executives said most patients experienced few or mild side effects, with gastrointestinal events largely limited ​to early doses and clustered close to when patients received the shot. The results were presented at the American Diabetes Association meeting in New Orleans. “Because of the very long half life here, you get a very smooth profile compared to ​weeklies,” Pfizer Chief Internal Medicine Officer Jim List said in an interview. “When you give it monthly … ​it’s very front-loaded. It does not persist through the month.” List said that researchers did see an increase in adverse ‌events after ⁠patients went from a weekly to a monthly dose in the trial, so the company plans to increase the dose more gradually in its late-stage program. Pfizer presented data on Saturday showing that the mean nausea rate in all the arms of the VESPER-3 study was around 38% and the mean vomiting rate was ​about 23.3%. Pfizer acquired Metsera in a $10 billion acquisition, entering the obesity drug market. More below: Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla has announced that the company will launch a new “once-a-month” shot designed to address America’s obesity problem. The announcement follows Pfizer’s acquisition of Metsera Inc., a biotech startup developing next-generation weight loss treatments.… pic.twitter.com/WG0JiXEEcd — Shadow of Ezra (@ShadowofEzra) November 11, 2025 More from Investing.com: The company utilized the American Diabetes Association conference in New Orleans to present new data on berobenatide, the long-acting GLP-1 receptor agonist peptide inherited from that transaction. “We are entering a new era of internal medicine innovation,” Chris Boshoff, Pfizer’s chief scientific officer, said in an interview with Bloomberg ahead of the conference. In results from the Phase 2b VESPER-1 study, patients moving to the highest weekly dose achieved a 15.9% reduction in body weight over eight months without hitting a plateau. Additional data from the VESPER-3 trial evaluating overweight or obese patients without diabetes showed that individuals receiving the highest dose every four weeks lost nearly 15% of their body weight after 14 months. Pfizer emphasized that the drug could become the first once-a-month therapy in its class, offering a distinct convenience advantage over weekly options like Zepbound and Wegovy. “In Phase 2b studies, berobenatide delivered continuous, uninterrupted weight loss at all doses selected for Phase 3, while preserving a tolerable profile as people transitioned from a weekly to a monthly maintenance dose,” said Jim List, Pfizer’s chief internal medicine officer in a Saturday press release. List noted that Pfizer’s commercial network provides an edge as obesity care shifts to primary-care physicians, telling Bloomberg, “We have primary care in our DNA.” The drugmaker is preparing to advance more than 20 trials across obesity and related metabolic conditions in 2026, which includes 10 active and planned Phase 3 studies for berobenatide. Executives plan to evaluate the drug’s impact on closely linked comorbidities such as sleep apnea and knee osteoarthritis, while expanding clinical trials internationally into China and Japan. Read Pfizer’s release on the data HERE. What are your thoughts?