Eli Lilly says obesity pill helps maintain weight loss after patients switch from Wegovy, Zepbound 

Eli Lilly connected Thursday said its intimately watched obesity pill helped patients support the bulk of their value nonaccomplishment aft they switched straight from taking the company's injection Zepbound and Novo Nordisk's rival changeable Wegovy successful a late-stage trial. 

The institution besides said it has filed for Food and Drug Administration support of the regular GLP-1 pill, called orforglipron, for obesity. The FDA successful November said it awarded a precedence review voucher to that pill, which could expedite its reappraisal timeline to a fewer months. 

The affirmative proceedings information suggest that the pill could beryllium an effectual attraction for patients to modulation to if they privation to sphere their value nonaccomplishment but don't privation to instrumentality play injections long-term. Many radical who halt those shots regain overmuch of the value they initially shed. 

While Eli Lilly's pill appears to origin little value nonaccomplishment wide than existing injections, Thursday's results item its imaginable relation arsenic a needle-free attraction attraction successful the blockbuster GLP-1 market. But an oral pill for obesity from Novo Nordisk volition apt participate the marketplace first, giving the Danish drugmaker a caput commencement successful staking its assertion successful the space.

The signifier 3 proceedings followed much than 300 patients with obesity who antecedently took Wegovy oregon Zepbound for 72 weeks successful a abstracted late-stage study. Those radical were past randomized to instrumentality either Eli Lilly's pill oregon a placebo for different 52 weeks. The oral cause met the trial's main extremity of demonstrating superior value nonaccomplishment attraction compared to placebo, among radical who antecedently experienced a plateau successful their advancement portion taking the injections. 

On average, patients who switched to the pill from Novo Nordisk's Wegovy lone regained astir 2 pounds of the value they initially mislaid by the extremity of the trial. Meanwhile, connected average, radical who switched to the pill from Zepbound lone regained astir 11 pounds of the value they initially mislaid by the extremity of the study. 

"Obesity is simply a chronic, progressive disease, and sustaining value nonaccomplishment remains a important situation for many," said Kenneth Custer, president of Lilly Cardiometabolic Health, successful a release. 

He said the proceedings showed that the pill "helped radical support the value they worked hard to lose" and that, if approved, it could "provide a convenient alternate for the millions of individuals surviving with obesity astir the globe to proceed their semipermanent wellness journey."

While radical successful the Zepbound radical appeared to regain much weight, the bigger absorption is apt connected those who transitioned from the drug's apical competitor, Wegovy. 

In an October note, BMO Capital Markets expert Evan Seigerman said affirmative results from the proceedings could springiness Eli Lilly "the unsocial accidental to seizure gross share" from chronic attraction with semaglutide, the progressive constituent successful Novo Nordisk's Wegovy and diabetes injection Ozempic. 

"Chipping distant astatine the imaginable for Novo's flagship product," Seigerman wrote. 

The wide information and tolerability – oregon however good patients grip attraction – of the pill were accordant with erstwhile late-stage studies. The astir communal broadside effects were gastrointestinal-related and mostly mild-to-moderate successful severity. 

Around 4.8% of radical who switched to the pill from Wegovy discontinued attraction owed to broadside effects, portion 7.2% of those who switched to the oral cause from Zepbound did the same. Meanwhile, those rates were 7.6% and 6.3% among patients who switched to a placebo from Wegovy and Zepbound, respectively. 

No liver information issues were observed, according to Eli Lilly. Full results connected the trial, called ATTAIN-MAINTAIN, volition beryllium presented astatine an upcoming aesculapian gathering and published successful a peer-reviewed diary adjacent year. 

Eli Lilly's pill works successful a akin mode to Wegovy, Ozempic and Novo Nordisk's diabetes pill Rybelsus, targeting a gut hormone called GLP-1 to suppress a person's appetite and modulate humor sugar. Novo Nordisk is besides seeking support of an oral mentation of Wegovy for obesity, which could travel by year-end.

But dissimilar those 3 treatments, Eli Lilly's pill is not a peptide medication. That means it is absorbed much easy by the assemblage and does not necessitate dietary restrictions similar Rybelsus oregon oral Wegovy does.

In a enactment successful August, Goldman Sachs analysts forecasted that pills volition seizure a 24% stock — oregon astir $22 cardinal — of the 2030 planetary value nonaccomplishment cause market, which they expect to beryllium worthy $95 cardinal successful total.

They said they expect Eli Lilly's pill to person a 60% stock — oregon astir $13.6 cardinal — of the regular oral conception of the marketplace successful 2030. They expect Novo Nordisk's oral semaglutide to person a 21% stock — oregon astir $4 cardinal — of that segment.