Boehringer Pitches Muscle-Sparing Obesity Drug in Crowded Field

Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH is pitching its experimental obesity drug as a way to help patients lose fat while preserving muscle, providing a potential edge in the crowded market for weight-loss medicines.

Survodutide reduced visceral fat, the harmful type stored deep in the abdomen around organs, by as much as 34% in an analysis within a larger clinical trial, the company said Sunday. Lean mass accounted for no more than 10.8% of the change in total tissue mass at the highest dose, while liver fat fell by more than 60%.

“This market is going to change dramatically,” Brian Hilberdink, who ...