Dive Brief:
- Walgreens has inked a clinical trial deal with major German drugmaker Boehringer Ingelheim.
- Under the deal, Walgreens will find candidates who are overweight or have obesity or diabetes and connect them with a Phase III clinical trial for Boehringer’s GLP-1 drug survodutide, according to a release.
- Walgreens launched its clinical trials business in 2022 as part of the company’s broader pivot to health services. Since then, Walgreens has notched more than 35 clinical trials deals with life sciences companies, according to a spokesperson.
Dive Insight:
A number of pharmacy giants have launched clinical trials units in the past few years, including Walgreens, Walmart, CVS and Kroger, setting up new revenue streams from drugmakers willing to pay a pretty penny to find participants for trials and studies.
The companies say their nationwide infrastructure and reams of patient data allow them to connect with a broad swath of patients, helping pharmaceutical companies reach a larger and more diverse patient pool. As a result, drugmakers can ostensibly fill trials more quickly with targeted recruitment campaigns and save cost overall, while ameliorating the long-running problem of bias in trial populations.
CVS, however, closed its clinical trials business about one year ago amid questions about the unit’s financial success.
Still, companies like Walgreens have doubled down, pursuing fresh deals with drugmakers.
During a healthcare conference in March, Walgreens CEO Tim Wentworth said clinical trials is an attractive business in part due to little underlying costs, given Walgreens already has its network of 9,000 brick-and-mortar pharmacies.
According to Walgreens, more than 75% of Americans live within five miles of one of its stores.
Now, Germany-based Boehringer is looking to leverage Walgreens’ brand and community reach to convince people to sign up for the next phase of clinical trials for survodutide, the company’s GLP-1 drug co-developed with Denmark drugmaker Zealand Pharma.
The drug has already passed trials for safety and effectiveness and is now moving into a Phase III trial, which compares its efficacy against existing treatments.
Boehringer is also partnering with research site provider EmVenio Research to use its mobile research units to extend its reach further into communities, and give potential participants more options for a trial site.
Demand has been soaring GLP-1s, short for glucagon-like peptide 1 agonists, to treat obesity and other cardiometabolic conditions. The drugs have shown real efficacy in helping patients shed pounds, but serious barriers to widespread access including shortages and steep price tags for the medications have made GLP-1s out of reach for all but a select few.
Once the Phase III trial is completed, Boehringer can request Food and Drug Administration review of the medication. If approved, it will compete against existing GLP-1s including Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy and Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro.
A Walgreens spokesperson declined to comment on the financial terms of the deal.
