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Eli Lilly’s new obesity and diabetes tablets have shown that they can reduce blood sugar levels and help lose weight in late stage trials, earning up to 13% of stocks in US drug manufacturers in pre-market trading.
Orforglipron uses the same GLP-1 mechanism as weight loss and diabetes injections such as Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Ozempic, and Eli Lilly’s Zepbound and Mounjaro.
David Rix, CEO of Eli Lily, calls it “a convenient pill for a day.”
Although meeting the demand for existing drugs has been difficult, Ricks said Orforglipron could be manufactured quickly and “stopped on a large scale” if approved by regulators. The company is expected to submit it later this year for approval for weight loss treatments and for diabetes approval in 2026.
In a phase 3 trial, the drug lost an average of 1.3-1.6%, and weight loss at the highest dose was averaged 8%. On average, the weight of the participants in the trial were not yet suffering at the end of the study, so if they used the medication for longer, they may be able to lose more.
Professor Naved Satta, professor of psychometabolic medicine at the University of Glasgow, said these are “significant results” and having a new pill that lowers blood sugar and weight is “important for future type 2 diabetes care.”
Positive results strengthen Eli Lily’s obesity pipeline when the company competes with rival Novo to dominate the market. Novo’s Wegovy and Ozempic still have a large portion of the market share, but Zepbound and Mounjaro are quickly catching up.
Novo has had disappointing results with its obesity drug pipeline. Late last year, the stock price fell 21%, indicating it missed its 25% weight loss target after it announced phase 3 results for the drug Cagrisema. Last month, I was also disappointed with the same drug test in a diabetic patient.
Other drugmakers are also about to enter the market, but earlier this week Pfizer abandoned attempts to create pills for weight loss after patients experienced “potential drug-induced liver damage” in the trial.
Eli Lilly’s trial had no liver-related safety issues. The patient experienced side effects similar to those common with injectables, including diarrhea and nausea.
The tablet has also been studied as a treatment for hypertension in obese adults and as an obstructive sleep apnea.
