The Eli Lilly & Co. logo at the corporate’s Digital Health Innovation Hub facility in Singapore, on Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024.
Ore Huiying | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Eli Lilly on Thursday said it expects to release data from a late-stage trial on its next-generation weight reduction drug retatrutide later this 12 months, a number of months sooner than anticipated.
The corporate expects to supply results from a 68-week study in individuals with obesity and osteoarthritis of the knee in 2025, in line with fourth-quarter earnings slides on its website. Eli Lilly previously said that phase three study was expected to complete in February 2026.
It’s amongst at the least nine closely watched clinical trials on retatrutide, which works otherwise from the obesity and diabetes treatments available on the market and appears to be even more practical at weight reduction.
“We consider this potential latest medicine can deliver much more weight reduction than tirzepatide and it could potentially provide additional health advantages,” Daniel Skovronsky, Lilly’s chief scientific and medical officer, said during an earnings call on Thursday.
Retatrutide is a key a part of Eli Lilly’s drug pipeline that might help the corporate maintain its dominance within the blockbuster weight reduction and diabetes treatment space and gain an edge over key competitor Novo Nordisk.
Dubbed the “triple G” drug, retatrutide works by mimicking three hunger-regulating hormones: GLP-1, GIP and glucagon. That appears to have stronger effects on an individual’s appetite and satisfaction with food than other treatments.
Tirzepatide, the lively ingredient in Eli Lilly’s weight reduction shot Zepbound and diabetes drug Mounjaro, mimics two of the hormones, GLP-1 and GIP. Novo Nordisk’s weight reduction drug Wegovy mimics only GLP-1.
Retatrutide appears to cause even greater weight reduction than tirzepatide, which has skyrocketed in demand within the U.S.
Retatrutide helped patients lose 24.2% of their body weight, or 58 kilos, on average after 48 weeks in a midstage trial on adults who were obese or obese. Those that took the placebo lost 2.1% of their body weight after that very same time period.
Higher doses of tirzepatide helped patients with obesity lose as much as 22.5% of their body weight on average in late-stage studies.
— CNBC’s Angelica Peebles contributed to this report.
