The pharmaceutical manufacturer Amgen announced on Tuesday that an experimental obesity drug helped patients lose up to 20 percent of their weight in a year. The drug, MariTide, is given by injection once a month, compared with once a week for other obesity drugs like Wegovy and Zepbound that are already on the market.

The pharmaceutical company's MariTide treatment performed well in a Phase 2 study but not as well as Wall Street expected.

Amgen's experimental drug MariTide led to an average weight loss of up to 20% in a year-long mid-stage trial of nearly 600 people who were overweight or obese, the company said on Tuesday.

Shares of Amgen (NASDAQ: AMGN) recently ticked lower despite a very positive-sounding press release regarding its weight management candidate. According to the giant drugmaker, treatment with an anti-obesity candidate called MariTide helped patients reduce their weight by up to 20% after 52 weeks.

Upcoming data from a mid-stage study of Amgen's experimental weight-loss drug MariTide will shed light on how well it might measure up against the popular GLP-1 drugs sold by Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk .

An Amgen obesity drug helped participants lose a substantial amount of weight, but questions about how competitive it could be remain

Amgen's latest once-monthly weight loss drug data looks "OK," analysts say, as its path to approval still remains murky.

Amgen (AMGN) reported today the highly anticipated results of a mid-stage trial of its experimental weight loss drug and potential Ozempic competitor MariTide, however, Wall Street wasn’t very impressed.