Altimmune says drug candidate cuts heavy drinking in mid-stage trial

Altimmune said its experimental drug pemvidutide met the main goal of a mid-stage alcohol use disorder trial, cutting heavy drinking days in adults with alcohol use disorder and obesity or overweight. Reuters-linked coverage of the result said the placebo-adjusted drop was 1.45 heavy drinking days per week, and BioSpace said Altimmune shares rose about 10% in premarket trading after the announcement.

The study, RECLAIM, was a Phase 2, multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial listed by ClinicalTrials.gov as NCT06987513. Altimmune said the 2.4 mg dose also hit important secondary endpoints, including a two-level reduction in World Health Organization risk drinking. That matters because alcohol use disorder is tied to liver disease, accidents, mental health problems and wider social harm, and even modest reductions in heavy drinking can lower the risk of relapse, injury and organ damage.

The company is pitching pemvidutide, a balanced 1:1 glucagon and GLP-1 receptor agonist, as more than a metabolic drug. Altimmune, based in Gaithersburg, Maryland, already had pemvidutide in development for liver and cardiometabolic disease, and it initiated RECLAIM on May 19, 2025. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted the drug Fast Track designation for alcohol use disorder on August 19, 2025, a regulatory step that can speed communication with the agency as a drug moves through development.

The result is promising, but it still sits well short of a breakthrough. Alcohol use disorder is difficult to treat because biology, behavior, mental health and social stressors all interact, and the field already has approved medications that remain underused. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism points clinicians to evidence-based treatment options, while a SAMHSA pocket guide says medications are underused in alcohol use disorder and notes that only 1.6 million of an estimated 17.6 million people who needed treatment for an alcohol problem in 2014 received specialty care. The FDA-approved drugs commonly used now are naltrexone, acamprosate and disulfiram.

Altimmune said enrollment in RECLAIM finished ahead of schedule, and it is also running a separate Phase 2 RESTORE trial of pemvidutide in alcohol-associated liver disease. The company has said topline RECLAIM results were expected in the third quarter of 2026, and the latest data now give it a stronger case for advancing the drug into larger studies. The harder test is whether pemvidutide can hold that benefit in a broader population and find a place alongside treatments that already exist but reach too few patients.