Gubra announced the selection of a development candidate and unveils urocortin-2 (UCN2) as a novel anti-obesity drug candidate for healthy weight loss. This once weekly peptide will be developed as a healthy weight loss drug with a favourable cardiac profile. This marks the start of the preclinical toxicology programme.

Originally, the UCN2 programme was developed as a novel cardio-renal therapy, but the focus has now been shifted towards healthy weight loss thereby adding a new mechanism to the Gubra obesity pipeline. Notably, co-administration studies in diet-induced obese rats have shown that UCN2 completely prevents the lean mass loss observed in animals treated with GLP-1, or Amylin agonists while improving fat mass loss. With the current anti-obesity drugs, 20-40% of the body weight lost is unwanted loss of lean mass (muscles, bones, internal organs).

In contrast, healthy weight loss focuses on body composition and promotes fat loss while preserving lean muscle mass to induce a healthy and sustained weight loss.