PrecisionLife and Ovation identify first potential genetic biomarkers to quantitatively predict GLP-1 efficacy response

Building on strong efficacy results, the companies will expand their collaboration to 25,000 patients to identify safety, tolerability, and drug-specific response signals.

OXFORD, England and PORTLAND, Maine, Feb. 25, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Ovation.io, a leading human omics and clinical data company, and PrecisionLife, a precision medicine company transforming how complex chronic diseases are understood and managed, today announced the results of the first phase of their collaboration to develop drug-response biomarkers to quantitively predict the efficacy, safety and tolerability of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1) therapies, and the extension of their partnership.

Using Ovation's longitudinal clinical and omics datasets and PrecisionLife's AI-driven combinatorial analytics platform, the partners identified underlying genetic drivers of GLP-1 efficacy to predict and stratify strong and weak responders within a large real-world population. The insights provide a better understanding of the genetic and biological drivers of GLP-1 responses and provide new biomarkers for drug development, refined patient enrollment in clinical trials, and potentially underpin a payor-facing test to inform reimbursement policy for these widely prescribed drugs based on a patient's potential to tolerate and respond to a specific therapy.

GLP-1 therapies are among the fastest-growing drug classes globally, yet approximately 50% of patients discontinue treatment within 12 months, often losing previously achieved metabolic benefit[1]. With US spending on GLP-1 medicines exceeding $70 billion annually[2], variable response and high discontinuation rates create significant clinical and economic challenges for payors, providers, and pharmaceutical developers. 

Phase 1 of the collaboration, which was initiated in December 2025, utilized 4,600 patients' data and generated over 2,500 genetic signatures associated with GLP-1 RA-mediated efficacy. These signatures were mapped to 1,100 genes with 15 main genetic mechanisms driving efficacy. These markers of strong responses to GLP-1 drugs were also associated with type-II diabetes, cardiovascular disease, lipid metabolism and other disease states. The biomarkers of efficacy were identified in 100% of the patients. 

Steve Gardner, Chief Executive Officer of PrecisionLife, stated: "While questions have been raised in the literature about the impact of genetics on GLP-1 patient responses, Phase 1 of the PrecisionLife/Ovation collaboration demonstrated that we can identify genetic biomarkers associated with strong and weak responders to GLP-1 RA drugs and quantitatively predict the level of efficacy based on their degree of response measured by BMI and HbA1c changes. While we see many known pathways, a number of the genes identified are outside of the "defined" GLP-1RA mechanisms of action and novel in the literature. We believe this initial effort demonstrates our combined ability to provide solutions in high value disease states where precision medicine and therapy selection improve outcomes and address unmet needs."

Based on these results, PrecisionLife and Ovation have agreed to expand their partnership into Phase 2, scaling the dataset to up to 25,000 patients and incorporate more detailed clinical phenotype data. This next phase will validate and refine efficacy signals and identify predictive markers of safety and tolerability, including drug-specific response differences. This will stratify different subgroups within the diverse treatment population, showing which are most likely to be responsive to GLP-1s and which are not, and which have the highest likelihood of specific adverse events. 

"Our initial, hypothesis free results suggest that by combining Ovation's unique normalized and standardized longitudinal data sets and clinical records with PrecisionLife's mechanistic patient stratification analysis platform, we can identify specific combinations of genetic and biological drivers that create different "response-defined" subgroups within this crucial therapeutic category." said Curt Medeiros, Chief Executive Officer of Ovation.io. "These real-world, in-the-wild, data can be of significant value to our biopharma clients as well providing important clinically facing markers that improve patient outcomes. Matching patients to specific therapies based on their individual risk and response mechanisms, rather than treating them as a homogeneous population, enables more targeted, de-risked development programs and more accurate patient prescriptions."

For more information, visit: www.precisionlife.com/glp1

For more information about Ovation, visit www.ovation.io

[1] Gleason et al., JMCP (2024)

[2] Tsipas et al., JAMA Netw Open (2025)

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SOURCE PrecisionLife Ltd; Ovation.io