Fairfax, Va.-based George Mason University is leading a phase 2 clinical trial of ARD-201, an oral medication designed to help patients maintain weight loss after stopping GLP-1 treatments such as Ozempic and Wegovy.
The university is one of six sites participating in the open-label trial of the experimental drug, developed by Aardvark Therapeutics, according to a Jan. 9 news release. The drug works by activating bitter taste receptors in the gut and brain to suppress appetite, without producing an actual bitter taste.
The study will enroll adults who lost weight using injectable GLP-1s and have since discontinued them. Researchers will track weight regain and compare outcomes to typical post-treatment patterns.
If results from the phase 2 study are promising, researchers said they could inform larger, randomized trials to evaluate the drug’s long-term effectiveness.
