Eli Lilly’s investigational obesity pill led to less weight loss in a late-stage trial than the reductions seen with injectable treatments on the market, results that weaken its competitiveness as one of Lilly’s most-anticipated candidates.
After 72 weeks, patients taking the highest dose of the therapy, called orforglipron, experienced 11.2% weight loss, when analyzing all participants regardless of discontinuations. Those on placebo lost 2.1% of their weight, Lilly said Thursday.
The drugs that are currently prescribed, Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Lilly’s Zepbound, ushered in a new era of weight loss treatment, showing 15% and 21% weight loss in their respective trials. When Lilly reported mid-stage results of orforglipron, showing that the pill led to 15% weight loss in less than a year, doctors and investors hoped that it would be able to match the high efficacy of what’s already available while being much more convenient to distribute and take.
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