The first GLP-1 pill could be in medicine cabinets sooner than expected.
Eli Lilly (LLY) announced Thursday that its daily obesity pill, orforglipron, met company goals in the first of several late-stage trials — helping patients with Type 2 diabetes lower their blood sugar while causing weight loss. The results were comparable with other GLP-1 injections on the market, such as Ozempic and Mounjaro.
Orforglipron could give Lilly a key advantage over other pharmaceutical giants in the GLP-1 realm. Lilly’s stock was up 11% in premarket trading. Novo Nordisk (NVO), which makes Ozempic, was down 6%.
The results are pivotal: While the GLP-1 class of medication has become a blockbuster on the market (both for diabetes treatment and weight loss), they’re expensive, must be injected, and need to be kept refrigerated. A pill version would be a more convenient option that could be much more widely used.
Lilly expects to file for global regulatory approval of orforglipron for weight management by the end of the year and for Type 2 diabetes in 2026. The phama giant currently sells Zepbound and Mounjaro for diabetes and weight loss — both of which are administered by injection.
Orforglipron is the first small-molecule GLP-1 taken without food and water restrictions to successfully complete a Phase 3 trial. In a press release, the company said that if the drug is approved, Lilly is “confident in its ability to launch orforglipron worldwide without supply constraints.” Shortages of currently available GLP-1 medications have been a prevalent issue recently.
David Ricks, Lilly’s CEO and chair, 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.”
Lilly’s pill involves complicated science that makes a nonpeptide act like a peptide. Japanese company Chugai Pharmaceutical Co. (RHHBY), which figured out how to do just that, licensed its drug to Lilly in 2018. The resulting medication is a bit of a unicorn in the medical world: a peptide drug pill that can be taken at any time of day, with or without food.
Novo Nordisk has a GLP-1 pill, Rybelsus, but it isn’t as effective as Lilly’s pill — it must be taken in large doses and also isn’t as effective as injectables because most of it is digested.
Thursday’s results from Lilly are the first reported from seven large studies of orforglipron that are expected this year from the company. This first Phase 3 trial involved 559 people with Type 2 diabetes across the U.S., China, India, Japan, and Mexico — who either took orforglipron or a placebo for 40 weeks. In patients who received the medication, blood sugar levels dropped by about the same amount that patients taking Ozempic or Mounjaro experienced over that same period.
The study measured weight loss as a secondary goal. Patients who received orforglipron also reported weight loss — up to 16 pounds without reaching a plateau, meaning more weight loss was possible on the medication. The 40-week results were similar to what patients taking Ozempic experienced but slightly less than those taking Mounjaro.
Lilly’s trial participants reported side effects similar to other GLP-1s: diarrhea, indigestion, constipation, nausea, and vomiting.
Lilly said it expects Type 2 diabetes to affect an estimated 760 million adults by 2050. And according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 40% of Americans are obese — and more than 10% have diabetes (most of whom have Type 2).
According to a May 2024 study from KFF, 62% of adults who have taken GLP-1 drugs said they took them to treat a chronic condition (including diabetes or heart disease), and four in 10 adults said they took the drugs to lose weight.
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