By Ludwig Burger

FRANKFURT Zealand Pharma and partner Boehringer Ingelheim said their experimental obesity drug achieved up to 14.9% weight loss after 46 weeks in a mid-stage trial, adding a potential contestant to the fast growing obesity drug market.

In a statement on Wednesday, the partners said that the Phase II dose-finding trial met its primary endpoint of weight loss, the Danish company added.

A spokesperson for unlisted Boehringer said that the partners are in discussion with regulators about a potential follow-up trial in the third and last phase of testing that is typically required for approval.

The enormous demand for weight-loss treatments such as Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy, or potentially Eli Lilly's Mounjaro, could support as many as 10 competing products with annual sales reaching up to $100 billion within a decade, mostly in the United States, industry executives and analysts said.

(Reporting by Ludwig Burger, Editing by Louise Heavens)