Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY) shares climbed on Thursday, after it said its daily obesity pill met the company’s goals in the first of several late-stage trials, helping patients with Type 2 diabetes lower their blood sugar and body weight and showing safety comparable with popular injections on the market.
The trial results are among the pharmaceutical industry’s most closely watched studies of the year, as they bring Eli Lilly’s experimental pill — called orforglipron — another step closer to becoming a new, needle-free alternative in the booming weight loss and diabetes market. This more convenient, easier-to-manufacture pill could give Eli Lilly a major edge over Novo Nordisk and other rivals trying to enter the lucrative space.
The pill’s weight loss data, along with rates of side effects and treatment discontinuations, were in line with what some Wall Street analysts were expecting. But orforglipron fell short of some analysts’ estimates for a key diabetes metric.
The highest dose of the pill helped patients lose 7.9% of their weight, or around 16 pounds, on average after 40 weeks. Eli Lilly also said patients saw no plateau in their weight loss by the time the study ended, suggesting they could lose more beyond that period.
LLY shares popped $110.69, or 15.1%, to $845.59.