Wave Life Sciences’ stock has crashed by nearly 50% after its Phase I obesity trial showed low levels of weight loss.
In the INLIGHT study (NCT06842186), healthy individuals living with overweight or obesity treated with WVE-007 at 240mg, underwent a 16.5% reduction in body composition as measured by visceral fat-to-muscle ratio (VMR), a figure that came in below analyst expectations.
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At the six-month follow-up, total fat was reduced by 5%, stabilisation of lean mass increased by 2%, and patients saw a 3% reduction in waist circumference and 1% reduction in body weight.
In the higher 400mg dose cohort, patient lost about 5% of visceral fat after three months. In the same group, total fat loss was 0.7%, with lean mass preservation of -0.2% from baseline. Wave said that this cohort had a leaner baseline body composition, with lower BMI and more patients with healthy levels of visceral fat than the 240mg cohort.
WVE-007, a targeted RNA interference (RNAi) therapeutic that targets the INHBE gene, was safe and tolerable at doses up to 600mg, with no treatment discontinuations or severe or serious treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs).
Wave said that the sustained Activin E reductions for at least seven months support WVE-007’s potential for once or twice-yearly dosing.
Investors did not look favourably on the data, and Waves stock crashed by 49.59% on 26 March, from a $12.30 close on 25 March to a $6.20 close the next day.
Analysts from Jeffries said that the reaction was not surprising after the data failed to meet expectations. They added, however, that it still remains early days for the drug, which has a novel mechanism of action (MoA), with hopes that the Phase IIa trial will support more “meaningful weight loss” to better evaluate its competitiveness to flagship weight loss drugs on the market.
Wave still plans to advance the drug to the Phase IIa portion of the INLIGHT trial, which will evaluate it as a monotherapy in patients with higher BMI (35-50 kg/m2) and comorbidities. Dosing is set to initiate in the second quarter of 2026.
GlobalData’s latest report, “GLP-1 Innovation Landscape 2026: Industry Insights,” reveals that the use of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1RA) drugs is rapidly expanding beyond treatments for diabetes and into mainstream weight management because they are effective at increasing satiety and reducing food intake, resulting in rapid weight loss.
Use among patients without diabetes but with overweight or obesity in the US rose 700% from 2019 to 2023, according to researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
While injectables remain the growth engine through 2031, the convenience and affordability of the GLP‑1RA pill format is expected to expand the user base, with pill market sales expected to rise from $3.2bn in 2025 to $34.3bn in 2031, according to GlobalData’s Pharmaceutical Intelligence Centre.
GlobalData is the parent company of Clinical Trials Arena.
