Amgen also tested MariTide in a population with Type 2 diabetes, a group that tends to lose less weight with the new obesity drugs. On average they lost up to 17 percent of their initial weight.

A highly anticipated obesity-drug candidate from biotech Amgen helped patients shed a significant amount of weight in a midstage study, but fell short of the loftier expectations of some investors. Subjects taking Amgen’s MariTide lost 20% of their body weight compared with those who received placebos,

The results shed light on how MariTide may measure up to weight loss injections from Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly and other experimental treatments.