Healthy Returns: Weight loss drug race heats up with pill data from Viking Therapeutics, AstraZeneca

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Happy Friday! Buried in the election news this week was new data from drugmakers vying to enter the booming weight loss drug market. 

Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca and biotech company Viking Therapeutics were among the companies that presented encouraging data on their obesity pills and other treatments at the ObesityWeek conference in San Antonio, Texas, in recent days. 

Wall Street is betting that the new wave of growth in the obesity space will be driven by pills that could offer more convenience and potentially fewer side effects, which could keep patients on the drugs for longer. Analysts expect the weight loss drug market to be worth more than $100 billion by the end of the decade as more treatments emerge and help meet the demand that existing injections from Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly are still struggling to keep up with. 

Here's what some of the data on the pills looked like. 

People who took the highest dose of Viking's daily pill lost an average of 6.8% of their body weight after 28 days when compared to those who received a placebo, according to results from an early-stage study on 92 people. 

That outperformed investors' expectations of 5% to 6% weight loss when compared to a placebo, William Blair analyst Andy Hsieh said in a note on Monday. That bar was set by an experimental pill from Novo Nordisk that demonstrated 5% weight loss in four weeks, he noted. 

Hsieh also said Viking's pill showed a "highly benign tolerability profile," referring to how well patients tolerated the drug. Six of nine participants on the highest dose of the drug experienced mild nausea, while just one experienced vomiting.

That could potentially be an advantage over existing injections for obesity, which can cause gastrointestinal side effects so uncomfortable that they drive some patients to stop treatment. 

Still, some analysts questioned whether Viking could capture a large share of the competitive market for weight loss drugs, particularly raising concerns about its ability to manufacture enough of its drugs as a small company. 

"We're not saying it's impossible for Viking to manufacture, however we think it will be costly with capital requirements and expertise beyond what Lilly and Novo currently have," Deutsche Bank analyst James Shin said in a note on Monday. 

But Hsieh said he believes Viking offers "a unique set of attractive characteristics in the lens of big pharma." There's already been speculation around the potential for Viking to get bought out by a large pharmaceutical company. 

Apart from its pill, Viking is developing a weight loss injection and other treatments. 

Meanwhile, AstraZeneca said its experimental obesity pill was well-tolerated by patients with Type 2 diabetes in an early study, as it presented data from several studies on three new treatments during the conference. 

AstraZeneca, after it announced last year it would license the once-daily pill from Chinese drugmaker Eccogene, said it believed the pill could cause fewer side effects than injectable treatments from Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly. 

Patients with diabetes lost 5.8% of their body weight over four weeks of treatment with AstraZeneca's pill. 

Some analysts said it was difficult to compare the data to other weight loss drugs since AstraZeneca's study was small and tested on diabetic patients rather than those with obesity. Still, AstraZeneca has said it believes its pill is differentiated from other therapies in development and on the market, particularly given how well it was tolerated by patients. 

Feel free to send any tips, suggestions, story ideas and data to Annika at annikakim.constantino@nbcuni.com.

Here's how Americans voted on abortion access

Americans in 10 states voted on whether to enshrine or expand access to abortion this week, more than two years after Roe v. Wade was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. 

Abortion access was a hot-button issue during the presidential campaign this year, particularly among women voters. President-elect Donald Trump recently said he believes the issue should be left to the states, but he has previously expressed support for various proposals of a nationwide ban. 

Ballots are still being counted across the country, but here's how Americans have voted on abortion, according to NBC News projections: 

Arizona: Passed

Arizona voters passed Proposition 139, which provides a right to abortion in the state before the point of fetal viability at around 24 weeks. 

The measure passed with 61.2% of the vote, while 38.8% of Arizonians voted against it, according to NBC News. About 74% of expected votes have been counted so far. 

Colorado: Passed

Voters in Colorado passed Amendment 79, which enshrines the right to abortion in the state constitution. It also lifted a ban that prevented public funds from being used to pay for abortions, which means more Coloradans can get insurance coverage for the procedure.

Amendment 79 passed with 61.9% of the vote, according to NBC News. About 86% of expected votes are in.

Florida: Not passed

Florida voters struck down Amendment 4, which would have offered a constitutional right to abortion before fetal viability or when the procedure is necessary to protect the patient's health. Abortions are currently banned after six weeks of pregnancy in the state. 

More than 57% percent of Floridians voted in favor of the amendment, according to NBC News. It needed to cross 60% in order to pass. About 96% of expected votes have been counted.

Maryland: Passed

Voters in Maryland enshrined abortion access in the state's constitution by passing a right to reproductive freedom, which includes "the ability to make and effectuate decisions to prevent, continue, or end one's own pregnancy."

The measure passed with 74.7% of the vote, according to NBC News. About 83% of expected votes are in.

Missouri: Passed

Voters in Missouri passed Amendment 3, which enshrines a right to reproductive freedom in the state's constitution. The amendment gives residents "the right to make and carry out decisions about all matters relating to reproductive health care," which includes abortion. 

Amendment 3 passed with 51.7% of the vote, while 48.3% of people in the state voted against it, according to NBC News. Around 99% of expected votes are in.

Montana: Passed

Montana voters enshrined abortion access into their state's constitution by establishing a right to "make and carry out decisions about one's own pregnancy." 

The measure passed with 57.6% of the vote, while 42.4% of voters cast their ballots against it, according to NBC News. About 96% of expected votes have been counted.

Nebraska: Mixed

Voters in Nebraska did not pass an amendment that would have expanded abortion access to the point of fetal viability at around 24 weeks, but they did pass a measure that codified the existing abortion restrictions in the state's constitution. Nebraska bans abortions after 12 weeks unless there is a medical emergency or the pregnancy is the result of sexual assault or incest. 

Nearly 49% of Nebraska voters cast their ballots in favor of expanding abortion access, while 51.4% voted against it, according to NBC News. The amendment prohibiting abortions after the first trimester passed with 55.3% of the vote. About 94% of expected votes are in.

Nevada: Passed

Voters in Nevada passed an amendment prohibiting abortions after the first trimester, unless they are medically necessary. The amendment also makes exceptions if the pregnancy is the result of incest or sexual assault.  

The amendment passed with 64% of the vote, according to NBC News. Around 92% of the expected votes have been counted so far.

New York: Passed 

New York voters passed Proposition 1, which protects abortion access in the state's constitution. The proposition says that people can't be denied rights based on their sex, including "sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, and reproductive healthcare and autonomy." 

Nearly 62% of New York voters cast their ballots in favor of the proposition, while 38.1% voted against it, according to NBC News. About 88% of expected votes are in.

South Dakota: Not passed

South Dakota voters did not pass Amendment G, which would have established a right to abortion in the state's constitution. All abortions are banned in the state, except when they are medically necessary to preserve the patient's life. 

More than 41% of voters in the state cast their ballots in favor of the amendment, while 58.6% of people voted against it, according to NBC News. Around 99% of expected votes have been counted.

Feel free to send any tips, suggestions, story ideas and data to Ashley at ashley.capoot@nbcuni.com.