(Reuters) -Eli Lilly said on Thursday its experimental pill, orforglipron, led to weight loss of nearly 8% at the highest dose and lowered blood sugar in patients with type 2 diabetes in a late-stage trial.
The results that exceeded Wall Street expectations pushed the U.S. drugmaker’s shares up nearly 13% in premarket trading, while dragging down rival Novo Nordisk and obesity drug developer Viking Therapeutics.
Lilly, which has already begun stockpiling supplies of the pill, said it plans to file for approval to global regulators by the end of this year.
The company currently sells injectable tirzepatide — the active ingredient in its diabetes drug Mounjaro and obesity treatment Zepbound — which mimics natural peptide hormones GLP-1 and GIP.
An oral drug is seen as a more convenient option compared to currently available weekly injections. Several companies are developing weight-loss pills, encouraged by the massive popularity of the injectable drugs.
Some analysts have forecast that weight-loss drugs could generate sales of $150 billion a year by the early 2030s.
Orforglipron also targets GLP-1, but unlike hormone-mimicking peptides, which also include Novo’s Ozempic and Wegovy, it is a synthetic small molecule drug.
Analysts were keenly eyeing side effects seen in the trial, which could be a stumbling block for the drug.
Lilly said 8% of trial patients on orforglipron’s highest dose discontinued treatment.
On Monday, Pfizer discontinued development of its experimental weight-loss pill danuglipron after a trial patient experienced potential drug-induced liver injury that resolved after the medication was stopped.
After 40 weeks of treatment in the multi-dose trial, Lilly said once-daily orforglipron showed body weight reductions of 4.7% at 3 milligrams, 6.1% with 12 milligrams, and 7.9% with 36 mg. Patients on placebo lost 1.6%.
Levels of HbA1c, a measure of blood sugar over time, fell by an average of 1.3% to 1.6% across doses.
Analysts at TD Cowen, in a recent research note, said a “rough bar” for the orforglipron trial was HbA1C lowering of 2%, weight loss of 7% and a discontinuation rate of 9%.
(Reporting by Bhanvi Satija and Manas Mishra in Bengaluru and Deena Beasley; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli and Sriraj Kalluvila)
