Altimmune presents results of Phase 2 MRI-based body composition sub-study

Altimmune presented data from its Phase 2, MRI-based body composition sub-study of pemvidutide in subjects with overweight and obesity at the 60th Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes in Madrid, Spain. Pemvidutide is a novel, investigational, peptide-based GLP-1/glucagon dual receptor agonist in development for the treatment of obesity and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis. In an MRI sub-study of 67 subjects from the Phase 2 MOMENTUM obesity trial, 50 of whom were treated with pemvidutide for 48 weeks, the lean loss ratio, defined as the change in lean mass compared to the change in total mass, was 21.9%. Lean mass preservation was greater in subjects aged 60 years and older, in whom the lean loss ratio was only 19.9%. In addition to lean mass preservation, there was a preferential reduction of VAT, the adipose tissue associated with cardiovascular risk. At the 2.4mg dose of pemvidutide, VAT was reduced by 25.6% at Week 48 compared to a 20.1% loss in subcutaneous adipose tissue. “Preservation of lean mass may reduce risk of falls and fractures, development of co-morbidities, and rates of all-cause mortality, particularly in individuals over the age of 60,” said Scott Harris, M.D., Chief Medical Officer of Altimmune. “Given the breadth and diversity of the obesity patient population, there has been growing attention given to the quality of weight loss. Our data demonstrates pemvidutide’s class-leading lean mass preservation, superior to that reported historically with diet and exercise. The robust reductions in VAT would also be expected to be associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease.”