A significant trial of a daily weight-loss pill has found that it helped people to shed the pounds and reduce their blood sugar levels, making it a contender to join the new wave of drugs that combat obesity and diabetes.
People who took a 36mg pill of orforglipron lost an average of 7.3kg (16lbs) over nine months, according to results from a phase 3 clinical trial reported by the drug’s manufacturer, Eli Lilly, on Thursday.
The trial, which enrolled 559 obese people with type 2 diabetes from the US, China, India, Japan and Mexico, also found that the daily pill reduced blood sugar levels, in some cases bringing them below the formal threshold for diabetes.
Results from the trial have been eagerly awaited by health researchers because orforglipron is the first daily pill version of a GLP-1 agonist, the medication used in blockbuster weight-loss injections such as Ozempic and Wegovy.
David Ricks, Eli Lilly’s chief executive, said: “As a convenient once-daily pill, orforglipron may provide a new option and, if approved, could be readily manufactured and launched at scale for use by people around the world.”
In a statement accompanying the results, the company said the drug met expectations on safety, tolerability, glucose control and weight loss.
While weight-loss jabs have soared in popularity, health officials believe that daily pill versions of the medicine could allow more people to control their weight and blood sugar levels. In Britain, two-thirds of adults are either overweight or living with obesity and more than 5 million people have type 2 diabetes.
The 40-week trial showed that taking a daily pill of 3mg, 12mg or 36mg reduced blood sugar by 1.2% to 1.5%. During the same period, participants saw their weight drop by an average of 4.5% on the 3mg pill, 5.8% on the 12mg pill and 7.6% on the 36mg pill.
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The results will be presented at a meeting of the American Diabetes Association in June before publication in a peer-reviewed journal. The company said it would apply for approval to market the drug for weight management later this year and for type 2 diabetes next year.
Naveed Sattar, a professor of cardiometabolic medicine at the University of Glasgow, said: “These are important results. Having new oral agents that lower glucose but also meaningfully lower weight well beyond levels seen with most existing diabetes therapies is critical to future type 2 diabetes care. Of course, one caveat is that we do not know the effects of this newer therapy on cardiovascular outcomes but this will be forthcoming in future trials.”
