By Michele Gershberg and Michael Erman
PHILADELPHIA, March 16 (Reuters) – The CEO of Roche’s Genentech unit, Ashley Magargee, said on Monday the company is striving to build a portfolio of obesity medicines that are both tolerable in terms of side effects and affordable.
“A lot of patients are dropping off therapy for various reasons,” said Magargee, speaking at the Reuters Pharma USA 2026 event in Philadelphia, pointing to a need for long-term weight maintenance and combination therapies for people who are not responding to just one medicine.
“How can you not just get these new medicines to patients, but also, how can you get an affordable portfolio of medicines to treat all the needs across the patient population?” she said.
Demand for obesity drugs has soared due to Novo Nordisk’s and Eli Lilly’s highly effective injectable GLP-1 medicines, with analysts forecasting the obesity market will be worth about $100 billion in 2030. Companies including Roche, Amgen and Pfizer are all working on experimental pills they hope can take market share.
Roche acquired rights to petrelintide, an experimental obesity treatment developed by Denmark’s Zealand Pharma, through a collaboration and licensing deal worth up to $5.3 billion that was signed last year. Genentech also has several other obesity treatment candidates in its pipeline.
During the interview, Magargee also spoke about changes in healthcare policy under the Trump administration, Genentech’s efforts to offer more medications directly to consumers, and how AI is poised to change the regulatory process for medicines.
FLU MEDICINE TO BE NEXT UP ON TRUMPRX
Roche’s Xofluza flu drug will be on the U.S. government’s TrumpRx.gov website when the administration launches the next tranche of medicines there, she said. The website directs patients to drug companies’ direct-to-consumer sites.
Xofluza is now available directly through third-party providers for $50 for cash-paying customers, a distribution channel the company says it sees as amenable to oral drugs rather than physician-assisted medicines.
“We’re certainly experimenting and bringing many more through that channel than we ever have,” said Magargee.
Genentech is one of 16 global drugmakers that have struck deals with U.S. President Donald Trump to cut the prices of their medicines for the government’s Medicaid program and for U.S. cash payers in exchange for tariff relief from the federal government.
Looking ahead, Magargee said it is difficult to predict what the Trump administration’s plans are for the pharmaceutical industry after a year of rapid policy changes.
“Hopefully we’ll be seeing a period where there is more predictability,” she said, pointing to the deal which exempts the company from tariffs for three years and will see it expand its manufacturing investment in the United States.
Magargee highlighted the role of pharmacy benefit managers, which negotiate drug prices on behalf of insurers and employers, in contributing to higher costs in the U.S.
She said Genentech set up its own list of covered medicines for its employees, allowing them to pay less out of pocket for drugs when there is more evidence of their effectiveness. The company expects to save $70 million over the next several years on drug costs for its workers based on the new model, she said.
USING AI TO IMPROVE FDA REVIEWS
Magargee said one aspect of drug development that she believes can be accelerated through AI and other technological developments is the FDA drug review process.
“So much around submissions is this kind of static, start-stop clock,” she said. “We could be creating much more dynamic data environments between sponsors and the FDA.”
Magargee said she believes the regulator is aware of the issues and has been working to modernize and digitize the process.
(Reporting by Michele Gershberg and Michael Erman; writing by Caroline Humer; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Nia Williams)
Comments