Obesity Clinical Trials: A Promising Research Landscape

Obesity is a hot topic in the pharmaceutical industry, with GLP-1 drugs dominating the headlines. According to data from Citeline’s Trialtrove, there are 5,189 obesity trials globally, of which 1,119 are planned or ongoing.

China and the US are the top two locations for obesity clinical trials, with India rounding out the top three for planned and ongoing trials. Of these, 56% are industry-sponsored (740 trials).

Looking at the Mechanism of Action (MoA) of the planned and ongoing industry trials for obesity, GLP-1 has the top spot with 57% (397 of 702 trials), represented by multiple drugs.

Total trial starts in obesity were relatively flat from 2017 to 2020 before beginning a steady rise from 2021 on.