Pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly is looking to roll out a daily weight loss pill for patients with obesity and type 2 diabetes. A recent trial showed the drug enabled people with both conditions to lose weight and reduce blood sugar levels substantially.
The drug, orforglipron, will serve as an alternative to injectable weight loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy that use semaglutide to mimic the hormone GLP-1.
An earlier trial showed orforglipron enabled weight loss for people with obesity, though at a smaller rate than injectable drugs. Still, a pill is more convenient, said Deborah Horn, the medical director at the UT Physicians Center for Obesity Medicine and Metabolic Performance.
Horn sought to test the drug’s effects on people with both obesity and type 2 diabetes.
She recruited 1,600 people from 10 countries to participate in a second trial. All participants had both conditions, and they were split into four groups: the first three took either a low, medium, or high dose of orforglipron each day, while the fourth group took a placebo pill. Everyone was given lifestyle advice.
The trial found that the high dose group lost almost 10 percent of their body weight on average, and reduced blood sugar levels by nearly 2 percent. Those on the medium dosage lost 7 percent of their weight and the low dosage group lost 5 percent. The placebo group lost an average of less than three percent of their body weight.
Results proved that orforglipron enables weight loss for these patients, too, though again at a smaller percentage than injectable semaglutide.
But that amount of weight loss is still beneficial, said Stefan Trapp, a professor of autonomic neuroscience and metabolic disease at University College London who wasn’t involved in the study.
“Weight loss of just five percent tends to show very clear benefits—for instance, people are able to exercise a bit more, to change their lifestyle, reduce their risk of other conditions,” Trapp said.
He added that because the pill doesn’t need to be refrigerated or distributed through syringes, it should be cheaper than the injectable version to make, store, and deliver to patients.
Eli Lilly hopes the drug will be approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for people with obesity and type 2 diabetes by early 2026, Horn said.
“It is my hope as a physician that the FDA will choose to approve all three doses so that we have flexibility in choosing the best dose for our patients that optimizes health and minimizes side effects,” she said.
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Ava Levinson
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