** Shares of drug developer Wave Life Sciences WVE rise 44.8% to $10.85 premarket
** WVE says its experimental obesity drug helped cut deep belly fat and boost muscle mass in an early-stage study
** The drug, WVE-007, was tested in adults with an average starting body mass index of about 32
** Three months after treatment, patients on the drug had 9.4% less visceral fat, the harmful fat that builds up around organs, and 4.5% less total body fat, compared with their own baseline, with no statistically significant changes in the placebo group
** The drug was generally safe and well-tolerated, with only mild treatment-related adverse events
** WVE plans mid-stage trials of WVE-007 as a stand-alone obesity treatment, as an add-on to GLP-1-based therapies, and as a maintenance option after patients stop those drugs
** WVE stock was down 39.4% YTD
