The behemoth of Swiss pharmaceuticals, Roche, said on Monday that it is accelerating the development of its Wegovy competitor weight-loss medications in light of encouraging early-stage trial results.

The company’s two obesity medication candidates are moving forward in the clinical trial process and may hit the market in the coming years, offering a possible pill-based substitute for Eli Lilly’s Zepbound weight reduction injections and Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy.

The spokeswoman emailed CNBC, saying, “We are fast-tracking the clinical development of our obesity portfolio with the aim to bring these medications to patients faster than anticipated.”

The business stated it will issue an update “when appropriate,” although it did not disclose its revised schedule. But CEO Thomas Schinecker suggested that the company’s first obesity medication would hit the market “much faster than people are expecting,” possibly as early as 2028, in an FT interview that was published earlier on Monday.

Teresa Graham, the CEO of Roche Pharmaceuticals, had stated to CNBC in December that she anticipated the business will be ready to launch the medications in the market starting in 2030.

Phase two studies for Roche’s CT-388 medication have begun, after findings from May that showed the medication was effective in assisting obese individuals to lose 18.8% of their body weight after 24 weeks in comparison to those who got a placebo.

After studies earlier this month revealed that the company’s experimental once-daily tablet CT-996 produced a placebo-adjusted average weight loss of 6.1% after four weeks in obese individuals without Type 2 diabetes, the medication will move on to phase two testing next year.

In January, Roche finalised its acquisition of Carmot Therapeutics, a U.S. biotech business, which included the acquisition of both CT-388 and CT-996.

The encouraging outcomes would make Roche a possible competitor to Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, the pioneers of obesity drugs. Last week, Schinecker expressed his expectation to CNBC that the firm will eventually provide a range of drugs to treat obesity.

Schinecker stated to CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” that “we have a number of things in our pipeline that really can differentiate us from other players.”

“We do believe we have two next generation GLP-1/GIPs that have a best in disease potential,” he said of the obesity drugs.

“We also have a number of different medicines in our own portfolio that we can combine with [obesity drugs],” he added, highlighting GYM329 as an example of a drug which counters muscle loss, a key side effect of weight loss.

(Adapted from CNBC.com)