By Rob Curran


Shares of NeuroBo Pharmaceuticals surged after the biotech company's obesity drug candidate received the go-ahead for a U.S. Food and Drug Administration commercialization application, setting the stage for human tests of a product that has shown promise controlling weight in laboratory rodents.

The Cambridge, Mass, company plans to initiate a Phase 1 trial of its DA-1726 product in the first half of the year after the FDA cleared the application. NeuroBo's product candidate acts as a glucagon-like peptide 1 -- the class of drugs that includes Novo Nordisk's blockbuster Ozempic and Wegovy -- but is also a "glucagon dual receptor," the company said, in a statement.

In preclinical studies, DA-1726 caused test animals to shed more weight than Novo Nordisk's Wegovy, and similar weight to Eli Lilly's Mounjaro while consuming more food, NeuroBo said.

"As previously reported, preclinical evidence has shown that DA-1726 results in persistent weight loss in diet-induced obese mice and rats by reducing food intake while increasing energy expenditure," said NeuroBo President and Chief Executive Hyung Heon Kim, in a statement.

The Phase I trial will be a single ascending dose study with enrollment of roughly 45 patients, the company said.

Shares of NeuroBo rose 30% to $4.56 premarket.


Write to Rob Curran at rob.curran@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

02-01-24 0929ET