Pfizer (PFE+1.26% ) announced Monday that it is ending development of its daily weight-loss pill following a liver injury to a patient participating in a trial. The patient, who was asymptomatic, recovered after they stopped taking the medication, according to a statement from the U.S.-based pharmaceutical giant.

Pfizer shares moved lower in premarket trading Monday after the drugmaker said it is scrapping its experimental weight-loss pill danuglipron, keeping the company on the sidelines of the booming obesity market. Shares of the New York company, which closed Friday at $21.91, were recently down 1.9% at $21.50 in premarket trading. Pfizer said the move follows a review of the program's clinical data, including the case of a single participant in a dose-optimization study who experienced a potential drug-induced liver injury that resolved after discontinuing danuglipron.

Capping more than two years of stock-gyrating drama, Pfizer said Monday that it would stop development of danuglipron, its experimental oral GLP-1 medicine to treat obesity, focusing its efforts on another medicine with a different mechanism of action. Pfizer said in a press release that an asymptomatic volunteer in the company’s studies experienced “potential drug-induced liver injury,” which resolved after stopping the medication. After reviewing all clinical data for the medicine and consulting with regulators, Pfizer decided to halt research on it.

Pfizer said a study subject developed a liver injury that might have been caused by its weight-loss pill. Pfizer is halting development of its experimental weight-loss pill, as the booming obesity drug market remains out of reach for the drug giant. The company said Monday the stoppage comes after it reviewed clinical data and a study subject developed a liver injury that might have been caused by the drug, called danuglipron. Halting the drug’s development means Pfizer still is unable to get a cut, for now, of the white-hot obesity...

Pfizer Inc. will stop developing an obesity pill that has been closely watched by investors, a severe blow in its efforts to compete with blockbuster weight-loss shots from Novo Nordisk A/S and Eli Lilly & Co.

The treatment, called danuglipron, was linked to a potentially drug-related liver injury in one patient enrolled in a clinical trial, Pfizer said in a statement. As a result, the company won’t advance the once-daily medicine into the final stage of testing and will instead invest in earlier-stage treatments for obesity.