An experimental once-daily pill appears to be effective at aiding weight loss and lowering blood sugar among people with type 2 diabetes, according to new data from the drugmaker Eli Lilly.
The medicine, called orforglipron, belongs to a class of blockbuster weight loss drugs known as glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists, which mimic a hormone that makes people feel full.
But other GLP-1s – like Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro – must be injected and kept cold, and drugmakers have been racing to find easier ways to deliver the medicine.
Lilly’s pill may be the first to get there, clearing a key hurdle in a late-stage clinical trial testing the safety and efficacy of the medicine, the company said.
The study divided adults with type 2 diabetes into three groups: one group of 559 participants took oforglipron, one took a placebo or dummy pill, and another group were told only to diet and exercise.
At the highest dosage, oforglipron lowered participants’ body weight by an average of 7.9 per cent, compared to 1.6 per cent among those who got the placebo. That translates to an average weight loss of 7.3 kg among those who got the pill and 1.3 kg among those who got the placebo.
The drug also helped reduce people’s blood sugar. Over time, high blood sugar can cause vision problems and damage the nerves in people’s hands and feet, among other health consequences.
Trial shows ‘important results’
“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,” said David Ricks, Lilly’s chair and CEO.
The company said the drug was similarly safe to other GLP-1 medicines. The most common side effects were diarrhea, nausea, indigestion, constipation, and vomiting.
There were no liver problems reported in the study, which is notable given Pfizer announced earlier this week that it would abandon working on a once-daily pill to treat obesity after one patient in a clinical trial experienced a potentially drug-induced liver injury that ended once they stopped taking the pill.
Independent researchers have not yet seen all of the data, and will be waiting for Lilly to publish the results in a peer-reviewed journal. But they said the initial findings were promising.
“These are important results,” Naveed Sattar, a professor of cardiometabolic medicine at the University of Glasgow in the UK, said in a statement.
“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”.
However, Sattar noted that it’s still unclear how the new pill affects cardiovascular outcomes overall. Other GLP-1 drugs have been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke, among other potential health benefits.
Lilly said the trial, which was conducted in the United States, China, India, Japan, and Mexico, is one of seven late-stage studies that will assess how well orforglipron works for people with diabetes and obesity.
