Can a Pill Rival the Weight Loss Injectables?
Eli Lilly’s experimental pill for weight loss helped people lose an average of 15% of their body weight after 36 weeks on the highest dose in a midstage trial, rivaling what’s seen with currently approved injectable therapies like Wegovy over longer durations.
The drug, orforglipron, had similar side effects as others in the class, known as GLP-1 receptor agonists: primarily gastrointestinal events like nausea, constipation and vomiting, researchers reported in a study published Friday in the New England Journal of Medicine. Results from the Lilly-funded trial were also presented at the American Diabetes Association conference in San Diego.
Currently approved medicines for weight loss like Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy are given as once-weekly injections. Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic, which contains the same key ingredient as Wegovy, called semaglutide, and Lilly’s Mounjaro are both approved for Type 2 diabetes but used off-label for weight loss. Orforglipron is part of a new group of experimental medicines that goes after the same target, GLP-1, but in a daily pill form.
Excerpted from CNN
