Roche wants to accelerate drug development, including for its weight loss drugs

Roche told investors on Monday that it plans to significantly reduce both the cost and the time it takes to develop new drugs, including its experimental weight-loss and diabetes drugs.

At an investor event, the Swiss pharmaceutical giant announced its goal to reduce the average development cost of drugs brought to market by 20% and shorten the time from early drug discovery to completion of phase 3 trials by 40% by 2030, according to a presentation published on the company's website.

Those goals include the company's recently acquired weight loss treatments.

Roche is one of several pharmaceutical companies The company is racing to break Ozempic maker Novo Nordisk's duopoly in fighting obesity (NVO) and Eli Lilly (LLY)which produces Zepbound and Mounjaro.

Morgan Stanley (MS) Analysts expect the global market for these drugs, called GLP-1/GIP treatments, to reach $105 billion by 2030. The drugs work by mimicking hormones that regulate blood sugar and suppress appetite. They were originally used to treat type 2 diabetes, but have gained popularity due to their slimming side effects.

The 127-year-old Roche first entered the weight-loss drug business earlier this year when it bought Carmot Therapeutics for $2.7 billion. The deal included three candidates: CT-996 – a daily pill – and the weekly injectable drugs CT-388 and CT-868.

Roche said on Monday that the three drugs together had the potential to generate annual sales of more than 3 billion Swiss francs ($3.6 billion).

In May, the company said it had lost patients taking CT-388 an average of 18.8% of their weight after 24 weeks of taking the medication in a small clinical study.

As a result, the company stated in July that this was the case fast tracking the development of its weight loss drug candidates. The inventory has increased over 37% since May.