Viridian announced that veligrotug, its potential thyroid eye disease (TED) drug, recorded impressive results in managing TED during a late-phase trial. The increase in effectiveness puts the drug in a lineup to become a rival to Amgen’s Tepezza.
The trial demonstrated that the company met both the primary and the secondary endpoints in the management of TED, which is a rare disease that affects 90 to 300 per 100,000 people in the USA.
Jefferies analyst Michael Yee said that the trial data seems promising and noted that veligrotug could be a shorter-duration drug with fewer side effects compared to other anticoagulants.
Yee also suggested the drug could reach $2B of sales as a TED therapy. On the other hand, Tepezza had a sales figure of $479M in the second quarter of last year after the company was bought by Amgen through $27.8B acquisition of Horizon Therapeutics.
TED is a condition characterized by inflammation and damage to tissues surrounding the eye: it occurs most commonly in people with a disease called Graves’ disease, where the immune system produces an excess of thyroid hormones.
The trial showed that veligrotug is highly effective because 64% of the patients had more than 2mm decrease in proptosis after 15 weeks of treatment when the results were adjusted for placebo effects. The drug was linked to a 5.5% rate of treatment-related hearing impairment, which the company considered to be lower than expectations.
Srikripa Devarakonda of Truist noted that veligrotug has potential but cited the hearing impairment side effect as opening room for further competitors. Late-stage study two is expected to be announced by Viridian in the second half of this year, while the approval process will commence in the second half of this year with full-scale regulatory approval expected in the second half of 2025.
