Those wondering about the mouthful of a name that is "orforglipron" may be interested in the INN (international nonproprietary name) standard for generic drugs. That name is a "generic" or "nonproprietary" name.
Those typically have a "stem" which indicate the mechanism by which the drug works. In this case, it's "-glipron", which you can parse as "glipr" -- GLP-1 receptor -- and "on" -- it's an "agonist", or something that turns "on" the receptor. So "-glipron"s are drugs which agonize, or activate, the GLP-1 receptor. There are other gliprons in trials, including danuglipron (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danuglipron) from Pfizer, and many others that don't have assigned INNs.
Semaglutide and liraglutide also agonize GLP-1, so why aren't they gliprons? Because chemically they are analogs of the naturally occurring GLP-1 peptide, so they get the -glutide (GLUcagon-like pepTIDE) stem.
The pipeline for weight loss drugs is quite full and can be found here...
>Industry data provider IQVIA pulled together a list of the current obesity pipeline, which features 124 medicines altogether: 61 in phase 1, 47 in phase 2, eight in phase 3 and eight on the market.
This isn't just an oral formulation of tirzepatide, right? The article sort of hints at this but doesn't really come out and say it one way or the other.
> Eli Lilly’s pill works in a similar way to Wegovy, Ozempic, and Novo Nordisk’s diabetes pill Rybelsus, targeting a gut hormone called GLP-1 to suppress a person’s appetite and regulate blood sugar.
(These three are all just different names for Semaglutide.)
> But unlike those three medications, Eli Lilly’s pill is not a peptide medication.
> ...
> But so-called small molecule pills [orforglipron] will at least be easier for Eli Lilly to manufacture than injections.
No, it's not a reformulation of tirzepatide. Orforglipron is a small molecule with a molecular mass of 883 g/mol and tirzepatide is a large molecule peptide six tims larger, with a molecular mass of 4813 g/mol.
The Wikipedia pages are decent -- the picture makes it fairly obvious how much smaller orforglipron is than tirzepatide even if you don't know how to read chemical structures; just count atoms!
It does say it in those two later sentences you quoted:
But unlike those three medications, Eli Lilly’s pill is not a peptide medication.
But so-called small molecule pills [orforglipron] will at least be easier for Eli Lilly to manufacture than injections.
In medicinal chemistry parlance, a "small molecule drug" normally means one that can be synthesized by flasks-and-beakers organic chemistry of the sort one learns in an organic synthesis class. (And it has a lower molecular weight than peptide or biologic drugs, hence the name.) Peptide drugs are synthesized by a specialized kind of organic chemistry that mimics aspects of protein synthesis:
The industrially relevant thing is that small molecule drugs typically cost less to produce, once the molecule goes into full scale production. Lower cost is an advantage for the first manufacturer while the drug is under patent and it's an advantage for buyers once the drug's patent exclusivity expires.
No medication to make people ripped (yet). Though I have to imagine someone is trying to find a way to induce myostatin-related muscle hypertrophy without gene therapy.
Readit News
Those typically have a "stem" which indicate the mechanism by which the drug works. In this case, it's "-glipron", which you can parse as "glipr" -- GLP-1 receptor -- and "on" -- it's an "agonist", or something that turns "on" the receptor. So "-glipron"s are drugs which agonize, or activate, the GLP-1 receptor. There are other gliprons in trials, including danuglipron (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danuglipron) from Pfizer, and many others that don't have assigned INNs.
Semaglutide and liraglutide also agonize GLP-1, so why aren't they gliprons? Because chemically they are analogs of the naturally occurring GLP-1 peptide, so they get the -glutide (GLUcagon-like pepTIDE) stem.
I don't know why tirzepatide got that name. It's a peptide, so "-tide" makes sense, but it's actually listed as a "various" exception in the master document of INNs: https://iris.who.int/bitstream/handle/10665/379226/978924009....
>Industry data provider IQVIA pulled together a list of the current obesity pipeline, which features 124 medicines altogether: 61 in phase 1, 47 in phase 2, eight in phase 3 and eight on the market.
https://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/late-breaking-obesity-...
> Eli Lilly’s pill works in a similar way to Wegovy, Ozempic, and Novo Nordisk’s diabetes pill Rybelsus, targeting a gut hormone called GLP-1 to suppress a person’s appetite and regulate blood sugar.
(These three are all just different names for Semaglutide.)
> But unlike those three medications, Eli Lilly’s pill is not a peptide medication.
> ...
> But so-called small molecule pills [orforglipron] will at least be easier for Eli Lilly to manufacture than injections.
The Wikipedia pages are decent -- the picture makes it fairly obvious how much smaller orforglipron is than tirzepatide even if you don't know how to read chemical structures; just count atoms!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orforglipron
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tirzepatide
But unlike those three medications, Eli Lilly’s pill is not a peptide medication.
But so-called small molecule pills [orforglipron] will at least be easier for Eli Lilly to manufacture than injections.
In medicinal chemistry parlance, a "small molecule drug" normally means one that can be synthesized by flasks-and-beakers organic chemistry of the sort one learns in an organic synthesis class. (And it has a lower molecular weight than peptide or biologic drugs, hence the name.) Peptide drugs are synthesized by a specialized kind of organic chemistry that mimics aspects of protein synthesis:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peptide_synthesis
The industrially relevant thing is that small molecule drugs typically cost less to produce, once the molecule goes into full scale production. Lower cost is an advantage for the first manufacturer while the drug is under patent and it's an advantage for buyers once the drug's patent exclusivity expires.
No, the molecule (per wikipedia) is significantly smaller.
Same as people who can't be bothered to comb their hair.
which was definitely considered a desirable look at various times.
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