Lexaria's Drug Delivery Tech Shows Promise in GLP-1 Study, Reduces Side Effects

Lexaria Bioscience Corp. has unveiled promising additional results from its Phase 1b clinical study, GLP-1-H24-4, showcasing the potential of its DehydraTECH™ (DHT) drug delivery platform. The study, which involved 126 overweight, obese, pre-diabetic, and/or type-2 diabetic volunteers in Australia, compared four DHT-formulated arms against the commercially available GLP-1 drug Rybelsus®. Key findings include that the DHT-semaglutide arm achieved a more favorable body composition profile, with a proportionally lower reduction in lean muscle mass compared to fat mass loss than Rybelsus®. Furthermore, the DHT-cannabidiol (DHT-CBD) arm demonstrated meaningful reductions in blood pressure, an encouraging sign for Lexaria's separate program investigating DHT-CBD for hypertension, for which the company has already received FDA clearance to conduct a Phase 1b study. Participants receiving DHT-semaglutide also self-reported superior improvements in health-related quality of life on the widely administered short form 36 health survey compared to the Rybelsus® control group.

The core message from CEO Richard Christopher emphasizes that this growing clinical dataset is paramount for guiding the company's 2026 R&D and business development plans. While the study met its primary safety and tolerability endpoint with DHT formulations showing clear reductions in gastrointestinal adverse events, the secondary and exploratory data reveal intriguing competitive advantages. Pharmacokinetic analyses presented challenges in quantifying plasma semaglutide levels in the DHT arms due to initial assay issues, though follow-up testing has detected measurable levels. Based on the aggregate findings, Lexaria identifies the DHT-semaglutide formulation as most worthy of continued investigation, with plans to potentially test a composition that includes the salcaprozate sodium (SNAC) ingredient, which was used in its previous, more efficacious human pilot studies but omitted from this trial.

Looking ahead, Lexaria is taking concrete steps to leverage these results. The complete dataset, exceeding 7,000 pages, is being prepared for review by a pharmaceutical partner ("PharmaCo") under an extended Material Transfer Agreement, with the hope that the demonstrated safety and tolerability benefits will be compelling for potential collaboration. The company, having recently raised capital to fund development through 2026, intends to pursue further clinical testing of a DHT + SNAC + semaglutide formulation and support complementary GLP-1 sector research. This news release, originally published on www.newmediawire.com, underscores Lexaria's position as a global innovator with a robust intellectual property portfolio, aiming to improve drug delivery for better patient outcomes.