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Key Takeaways

• Allurion Technologies said it planned to test its gastric balloon with the key ingredient in popular weight-loss drugs to see if the combination improves muscle mass in patients.

• The company noted that those using GLP-1 treatments lose muscle mass, while those that received its product maintained and sometimes gained muscle mass.

• Shares tripled on the news, but still remain significantly lower over the past year.

Shares of Allurion Technologies (ALUR) tripled Friday as the maker of the Allurion Gastric Balloon weight-loss device looked to take advantage of the booming obesity drug market.

The company announced it would begin a study to see if its gastric balloon, combined with popular GLP-1 medicines like Novo Nordisk's (NVO) Wegovy and Eli Lilly's (LLY) Mounjaro, could improve muscle mass and overall body composition in patients.

The company noted that previous research showed those who used GLP-1 treatments "demonstrated reductions in lean mass of approximately 40% as a proportion of total weight lost." It added that other studies showed those using the Allurion Gastric Balloon lost weight while maintaining—and in some cases increasing—muscle mass.

Founder and CEO Dr. Shantanu Gaur explained that decline of lean mass and muscle wasting are significant issues for GLP-1 users, and "our early data suggests that we may have a powerful tool in achieving more metabolically healthy weight loss." Dr. Gaur added that if the balloon-GLP-1 combination is successful, it "could become the gold standard for obesity care."

The news has given Allurion Technologies investors something to cheer about after they watched the shares sink rapidly since they hit a record high right after they began trading in the summer of 2023. They closed at an all-time low last Friday, and remain down more than 85% in the past year.

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