Experimental obesity drug leads to 24.2 per cent weight loss in trial
- Eli Lilly’s retatrutide showed the effects after 48 weeks, surpassing results seen with other medications
- Side effects seen during the trial beyond the usual nausea and vomiting associated with such drugs included some patients with abnormal heart rhythms
An experimental weight loss shot from Eli Lilly & Co. yielded the strongest results of any treatment yet, another boost for the company’s efforts to dominate the burgeoning obesity drug market.
Obese patients shed an average of 24.2 per cent of their body weight on the highest dose of the drug after 48 weeks, according to a study released on Monday by the New England Journal of Medicine. A quarter of those getting the highest dose lost 30 per cent or more, the company-funded, mid-stage trial showed.
“We have not seen results like this before in a trial of less than one-year duration with an anti-obesity medication,” said Ania Jastreboff, lead author of the study and director of the Yale Obesity Research Centre.
Lilly shares rose in post-market trading after the results were released, gaining 1.2 per cent at 6.24pm in New York.
Already the most valuable drug maker in the world on anticipation of its obesity drugs, Lilly is endeavouring to take the lead in a market for weight-loss therapies seen reaching US$150 billion by 2031. Rivals standing in the way are Wegovy-maker Novo Nordisk A/S, along with a crop of experimental drugs from Pfizer Inc., AstraZeneca Plc and Amgen Inc.