Structure Therapeutics CEO on obesity pill and more
Ray Stevens, chief executive officer of Structure Therapeutics Inc., during a Bloomberg Television interview at the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco on January 12, 2026.
Benjamin Fanjoy | Bloomberg | Getty Images
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After the launch of the first GLP-1 pill for weight loss Novo Nordisk This month, the issue of obesity came up at the annual JPMorgan Healthcare Conference, attended by thousands of pharmaceutical and biotech companies, investors, consultants and analysts.
I spoke with hopeful Ray Stevens, CEO of the obesity market Structure Therapeuticsabout the path forward for biotechnology and the future prospects of the emerging field of GLP-1.
This is a big year for Structure, as the company’s daily oral GLP-1 is scheduled to enter Phase 3 trials. Yapı Shares increased by over 100% on December 9th. released mid-stage data showed that the alenigliprone pill helped obesity patients lose more than 11% of their weight in 36 weeks when adjusted for placebo.
Here are some highlights from my interview with Stevens at the conference.
What will define your company’s success this year?
Stevens said 2026 is all about preparing for Phase 3 trials on alenigliprone. He said he believes Novo Nordisk’s now-approved pill and Eli Lilly’s upcoming rival oral drug will have strong launches, and that the Structure pill is “next in line” to enter the market.
“I think we’re going to have some really good tailwinds on this with potentially a best-in-class drug,” he told CNBC.
Stevens said he was proud of the data that emerged in December regarding the drug’s “really good efficacy” and tolerability, or data on how well patients tolerate the treatment. In the Phase 2 trial, there were no cases of discontinuation of the drug due to side effects among patients who started the drug at a low dose of 2.5 milligrams.
What will make your pill competitive in the market?
Sheldon Cooper | Light Rocket | Getty Images
Stevens said there are four reasons for this.
First, effectiveness. A Phase 2 trial in December showed that a higher dose of 240 milligrams helped patients lose 15.3% of their weight in 36 weeks when adjusted for placebo.
Other competitors have reported this level of weight loss after a longer period of time, such as 60 to 72 weeks, Stevens said.
Safety is another factor, he added. For example, Structure did not observe drug-induced liver damage in studies of the pill; This was a problem that also followed other experimental oral obesity treatments.
Stevens said that the third reason is that the production cost of the pill, which is a small molecule drug, is relatively low.
“We have the ability to scale massively so we can easily supply the entire U.S. market,” he said.
He said that the fourth factor is that the Structure pill can be combined.
The company has published data showing that it can pair oral GLP-1 with GLP-1. other drug targeting amylin Stevens said they achieved “truly synergistic effects” using the gut hormone. He added that oral GLP-1 can be combined with other types of treatment, such as PCSK9 inhibitors or drugs that significantly lower “bad” LDL cholesterol.
“Alenigliprone can be combined with other drugs very easily, so we’re excited,” Stevens said.
What role do you think pills will play in space?
Oral medications could expand the market, Stevens said. He noted that 100 million people in the United States need obesity treatment, but only about 5 million people receive the available injections.
Stevens said the “real growth” and uptake of the pills will come from primary care physicians, who write the majority of prescriptions for Americans.
He added that doctors prefer pills because of their flexibility.
Stevens said he’s seen cases where patients who received injections experienced side effects and were “really unhappy for a week and couldn’t go near that injection again.” But daily pills can make it easier to take medications.
For example, on a day when a patient will be attending an important meeting, he or she may split the pill in half to reduce side effects, he said.
What is expected for the future of the obesity drug market?
Stevens said he believes combinations “will be the next phase of the field.”
“I feel like the winners are starting to emerge for monotherapy treatments,” he said. But the patient population will be segmented based on a person’s obesity as well as other health conditions, such as fatty liver disease, chronic kidney disease and cardiovascular disease, Stevens said.
This is where combinations can come into play and help treat a condition better than one product alone.
Looking further into the future, Stevens said he hopes access and affordability are no longer an issue in this area. The market has made significant progress in the past year. Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly are lowering cash prices for their injections and upcoming pills, while Medicare coverage of obesity drugs will begin later this year.
Stevens said he was “pleased that costs are coming down because to me it’s always been about volume and really trying to meet a huge unmet need globally.”
He also said he hopes patients will have more treatment options in the future; whether this is a once a month injectable or different types of pills.
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