Eli Lilly obesity pill maintains weight loss after Wegovy, Zepbound 

Eli Lilly on Thursday said its closely watched obesity pill helped patients maintain the majority of their weight loss after they switched directly from taking the company’s injection Zepbound and Novo Nordisk‘s rival shot Wegovy in a late-stage trial. 

The company also said it has filed for Food and Drug Administration approval of the daily GLP-1 pill, called orforglipron, for obesity. The FDA in November said it awarded a priority review voucher to that pill, which could expedite its review timeline to a few months. 

The positive trial data suggests that the pill could be an effective treatment for patients to transition to if they want to preserve their weight loss but don’t want to take weekly injections long term. Many people who stop those shots regain much of the weight they initially shed. 

While Eli Lilly’s pill appears to cause less weight loss overall than existing injections, Thursday’s results highlight its potential role as a needle-free maintenance treatment in the blockbuster GLP-1 market. But an oral pill for obesity from Novo Nordisk will likely enter the market first, giving the Danish drugmaker a head start in staking its claim in the space.

The phase three trial followed more than 300 patients with obesity who previously took Wegovy or Zepbound for 72 weeks in a separate late-stage study. Those people were then randomized to take either Eli Lilly’s pill or a placebo for another 52 weeks. The oral drug met the trial’s main goal of demonstrating superior weight loss maintenance compared with a placebo, among people who previously experienced a plateau in their progress while taking the injections. 

On average, patients who switched to the pill from Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy only regained roughly 2 pounds of the weight they initially lost by the end of the trial. Meanwhile, on average, people who switched to the pill from Zepbound only regained around 11 pounds of the weight they initially lost by the end of the study. 

“Obesity is a chronic, progressive disease, and sustaining weight loss remains a significant challenge for many,” said Kenneth Custer, president of Lilly Cardiometabolic Health, in a release. 

He said the trial showed that the pill “helped people maintain the weight they worked hard to lose” and that, if approved, it could “provide a convenient alternative for the millions of individuals living with obesity around the globe to continue their long-term health journey.”

While people in the Zepbound group appeared to regain more weight, the bigger focus is likely on those who transitioned from the drug’s top competitor, Wegovy. 

In an October note, BMO Capital Markets analyst Evan Seigerman said positive results from the trial could give Eli Lilly “the unique opportunity to capture revenue share” from chronic treatment with semaglutide, the active…