The challenge of developing oral alternatives to peptide weight loss drugs

Injectable peptide drugs targeting the glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) receptor have had massive impact on approaches to treating diabetes and obesity, bringing huge revenue boosts to makers Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly. But the current peptide-based drugs are neither cheap to make nor easy to take. For the last decade, pharmaceutical firms have been racing to come up with an oral small molecule alternative, with mixed success.