GLP-1 Race Heats Up with Positive Test Results for Next-Gen Eli Lilly Drug 

Lilly didn’t just move the needle, it broke the scale. 

Results of a late-stage trial show that Type 2 diabetes patients using Eli Lilly’s highly anticipated next-generation weight-loss drug retatrutide experienced a significant reduction in blood-sugar levels and weight loss, the drug manufacturer said last week. The drug, an injectable taken once a week, helped patients on the highest dose lose 15.3% of their body weight on average and lower their blood sugar by 1.9% over nine months. 

“Retatrutide delivers the ​highest levels of weight loss we’ve seen from an obesity drug to date,” Scotiabank analyst ​Louise Chen said, according to Reuters. 

Triple Threat 

GLP-1 drugs have upended the business and science of weight loss, with millions of Americans (approximately one in eight, according to a survey late last year from the nonprofit KFF) taking medications like Ozempic or Wegovy for weight loss, diabetes, heart disease and more. And with J.P. Morgan Global Research reporting that the global market for incretins, metabolic hormones that include GLP-1s, will reach $200 billion by 2030, it’s no wonder companies are racing to bring new meds to market. 

But while current treatments focus on activating just one or two hormone receptors, newer versions are taking it a step further. Retatrutide was nicknamed “triple-G” due to its activation of three hormones: GLP-1, GIP ​and glucagon. The next-gen drugs are expected to offer even more weight loss and metabolic benefits than those on the market today. 

While injectables remain a cornerstone of the market, Eli Lilly and its rivals are also turning their attention to pill versions of the drugs: 

• In December, the Food and Drug Administration approved the first GLP-1 weight-loss pill: Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy. Since then, roughly 400,000 Americans have started taking the medication, CNN reports. 
• Eli Lilly expects to introduce its own pill, orforglipron, to the masses as early as next quarter, pending regulatory approval. 

More Advancement: Innovation in the space isn’t slowing down any time soon. In February, Kirk Habegger, a professor of medicine in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said he’d recently seen a presentation from a group working on a five-receptor drug. While it included activation of nuclear hormone receptors that had previously been used in effective drugs with use-limiting side effects, “if you can target those receptors to specific cell types, you might bypass some of the side effects,” Habegger said.