Although still in Phase I, Wave Life Sciences’ injectable RNA weight loss treatment achieved results that impressed analysts, with 4% fat reduction after three months, beating Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide at a similar time point.
A single dose of Wave Life Sciences’ injectable RNA treatment led to a 4% reduction in total body fat after about three months, the company announced Monday.
Interim data from Wave’s ongoing Phase I INLIGHT trial also showed, after placebo adjustment, that the lowest therapeutic dose of WVE-007 got a 9.2% reduction in visceral fat and a 0.9% increase in lean mass, with no statistically significant changes occurring in a placebo group.
Calling the results “impressive,” analysts at Truist said that the results “bode well for longer-term data” that are expected to read out in the first quarter of 2026. The analysts also applauded the preservation of lean mass. Loss of muscle is a persistent problem for other weight loss therapies like GLP-1s, with a cottage industry of other add-on therapies springing up to protect muscle in patients taking those drugs.
“Bottomline, in our view, update today from WVE-007 fundamentally changes the outlook for obesity landscape in a very disruptive manner and for the better,” Truist wrote in a second note Monday.
Shares of Wave rose 80% to $13.52 in Monday morning trading.
The data is “very positive,” analysts at Mizuho Group wrote Monday morning, projecting peak sales of about $7 billion for the drug if it reaches approval. The Mizuho analysts compared WVE-007 to Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide, marketed as Wegovy for weight loss and Ozempic for diabetes. At the 12-week time point in clinical trials, patients taking semaglutide only reached 2–2.5% fat loss, while also experiencing a reduction in lean mass of 3.5%.
Notably, WVE-007’s effects came without changes to lifestyle and no gastrointestinal issues common to GLP-1s, with no discontinuations or serious adverse effects in the Phase I trial. “Safety looks very clean,” the Mizuho analysts wrote.
In the first and second quarters of 2026, Wave will release six-month data for the lowest dose of 240 mg as well as three-month and six-month data for a 400-mg dose and three-month data for a 600-mg dose.
WVE-007 is an injectable RNAi treatment that works by silencing mRNA encoding the INHBE protein. According to Wave, people with a “protective” loss-of-function mutation in one copy of the INHBE gene have “healthier body composition” and a better cardiometabolic profile.