Eli Lilly shot helped patients lose 29% of body weight

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

Eli Lilly’s latest weight-loss shot helped patients lose as much as 29 per cent of their body weight in trials, giving another boost to the US pharmaceutical company’s booming obesity business.

In a statement on Thursday, Lilly said that the drug, called retatrutide, also improved other measures of physical wellbeing, with one in eight patients completely free from knee pain at the end of the trial.

Participants in the late-stage trials, suffering from obesity and osteoarthritis, lost an average of 28.7 per cent of their body weight after 68 weeks, the company said, compared with a loss of 2.1 per cent for those on a placebo.

Some patients dropped out of the trial because they were losing too much weight, the company said.

The results “highlight the powerful effect of retatrutide”, said Kenneth Custer, executive vice-president at Lilly. “We believe retatrutide could become an important option for patients with significant weight loss needs and certain complications, including knee osteoarthritis.”

The company said it expects to announce more trial results for the drug in 2026.

Retatrutide is a next-generation GLP-1 weight-loss drug from Lilly. These weight-loss medicines, such as Zepbound, have helped propel Lilly to become the first pharmaceuticals group to top $1tn in market value, though it has since dipped below that mark. Its shares were up 1 per cent in pre-market trading on Thursday.

Thursday’s results were Lilly’s “strongest efficacy to date” for retatrutide, said Evan Seigerman, an analyst with BMO Capital Markets.

“These results help to solidify retatrutide’s profile as an even higher efficacy next-generation GLP-1+ asset,” he said in a report.

Previous trials of Lilly’s popular weight-loss drug Zepbound, which was approved in the US in 2023, showed average weight loss of about 15 per cent.

Lilly’s trial results also lifted shares of rival Novo Nordisk, which rose 3.6 per cent in Denmark on Thursday.

The results come on the back of a positive August update in which Lilly said its orforglipron pill had met a key target by reducing the body weight of people who were overweight and suffered from diabetes by an average of 10.5 per cent. It said that the side effects were similar to those for its injectable weight-loss drugs.

In November, the US Food and Drug Administration said it would prioritise its review of orforglipron and the drug is expected to go on sale next year.

Lilly announced a drug pricing deal with President Donald Trump last month that included lower prices for weight-loss drugs in exchange for broader access to the drugs in US federal health programmes.