OWL Bio to Develop Obesity Treatment Reducing Annual Doses from 52 to 4

OWL Bio, a company specializing in long-acting injectable drugs, is accelerating the development of next-generation obesity treatments after being consecutively selected for government-funded projects by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, followed by the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy.

On the 16th, when Novo Nordisk, a global pharmaceutical company, launched its obesity treatment drug "Wegovy" in South Korea, a notice saying "Wegovy Stocked" was posted at a pharmacy in Jongno-gu, Seoul. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

On August 6, OWL Bio announced that it has been finally selected for the R&D-linked national project on materials and components technology development, supervised by the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy.

The goal of this project is to develop an ultra-long-acting microsphere drug delivery platform-based GLP-1 RA obesity treatment formulation and to enter Phase 1 clinical trials. The research, which began last month, will continue through December 2028, with a total R&D budget of 3.4 billion won.

Through this project, OWL Bio plans to develop an ultra-long-acting semaglutide formulation (AUL018) that maintains its therapeutic effect for three months with a single administration and to secure approval for a global Phase 1 clinical trial plan. The objective is to reduce the administration frequency for GLP-1-based obesity treatments from 52 times per year to 4 times per year.

Aram Kim, research director at OWL Bio, stated, "Based on the secured government funding, we will successfully complete the Phase 1 clinical entry and demonstrate unprecedented technological competitiveness in the global obesity treatment market."

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