Lilly’s experimental drug shows promise with 20.1% weight loss in mid-stage trial
(Reuters) -Eli Lilly said on Thursday its experimental obesity drug helped patients lose 20.1% of their weight in a mid-stage trial.
The first wave of obesity drugs that dominated the market focused mainly on the gut hormone GLP-1, but drugmakers are now looking to target other hormones or help preserve muscle mass during fat loss with their next generation of drugs.
The experimental drug eloralintide, administered once a week, belongs to a class of drugs that mimic the pancreatic hormone amylin, which slows digestion and suppresses hunger.
In an early-stage trial, the drug helped some patients lose more than 11% of their body weight in 12 weeks.
In the mid-stage trial, patients taking a 1 mg dose of the Lilly drug lost 9.5%, or 10.2 kilograms, and 20.1%, or 21.3 kg, at the highest 9 mg dose. This compares with the 0.2 kg weight loss seen in patients taking placebo at 48 weeks.
The study included 263 overweight adults who had at least one obesity-related comorbidity and did not have type 2 diabetes.
Lilly’s drug also showed improvements in factors such as waist circumference, blood pressure, lipid profiles, glycemic control and inflammation markers.
The most common side effects are mild to moderate gastrointestinal symptoms and fatigue, which occur more frequently with higher doses. The incidence of these side effects was lower with slower dose escalation and was similar to placebo at the 1 mg and 3 mg doses.
Data suggest eloralintide offers the potential for strong efficacy with improved tolerability and may serve as an alternative to incretin therapies, said Kenneth Custer, president of Lilly Cardiometabolic Health.
Based on these trial results, Lilly will begin enrolling patients for the late-stage trial next month. The drug is also being studied as a standalone treatment and in mid-stage trials in combination with Lilly’s blockbuster GLP-1 drug, tirzepatide, sold as Zepbound.
(Reporting by Sriparna Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)
