Trump has said those levies will encourage companies to re-shore production after domestic drug manufacturing shrank dramatically over the past decade. Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk have previously faced supply constraints with their existing weekly injections, as demand skyrocketed in the U.S. The company expects to begin making medicines at all four facilities within five years. Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy, cleared for weight loss, has shown up to 15% weight loss in trials. The trial's researchers said average weight loss did not appear to plateau after 48 weeks, suggesting a longer study could show even more. The phase two trial followed 338 adults who were obese or overweight and either received the pharmaceutical company’s injection, retatrutide, or a placebo each week. But some health experts contend that covering the drugs could eliminate the downstream costs involved with treating obesity-related conditions. It's not the first time the government has floated Medicare coverage of obesity drugs. Both pills are GLP-1 drugs that work like widely used injectables to mimic a natural hormone that controls appetite and feelings of fullness. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's approval handed drugmaker Novo Nordisk an edge over rival Eli Lilly in the race to market an obesity pill. But Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly agreed to extend lower government pricing for their GLP-1 drugs – $245 per month across all other non-starting doses – to all 50 Medicaid programs for all covered uses. President Donald Trump on Thursday struck landmark deals with Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk to slash the prices of their blockbuster weight loss drugs. The trial included 559 people who had Type 2 diabetes and were randomized to take either the pill or a placebo for 40 weeks. It's an issue top of mind for doctors, patients and investors because side effects such as nausea and vomiting are a significant reason why some people stop taking the injections. However, how well patients tolerate Eli Lilly's pill – specifically the rate of gastrointestinal side effects in the trial – will be the "key focus" of the phase three study results, according to Schott. In a phase two trial, orforglipron led to an HbA1c reduction of up to 2.1% at 26 weeks in adults with diabetes, compared to a decrease of 0.4% among those who took a placebo. That is in line with or slightly below Wegovy's 15% average weight loss in phase three trials. Bank of America analyst Geoff Meacham said in a Sunday research note that Eli Lilly's available orforglipron data "compares quite favorably" to Novo Nordisk's oral semaglutide, "cross trial comparison caveats aside." None of the three drugmakers has provided estimates for how much the new obesity pills would cost. Pills are also typically cheaper than injections, though it's unclear if that will be the case with the obesity pills. But for now, one experimental oral drug from Eli Lilly appears to have an edge over pills from Novo Nordisk and Pfizer — even though it may not win U.S. approval first. That drug is being considered under the FDA's new priority voucher program aimed at cutting drug approval times.Some people experience nausea, diarrhea, constipation, and vomiting.The findings from the trial "challenge the notion that patients living with obesity or overweight can achieve their weight loss goals with diet and exercise alone," according to Emmick.UPDATE 3-Novo's Wegovy pill makes encouraging start in weight-loss race vs LillyIt may be more convenient or preferable for people who can’t stand needles or would just prefer to swallow a pill.The company has said it expects to unveil data from five studies in patients with Type 2 diabetes and two trials in people with obesity in 2025.Still, some patients continue to use cheaper, copycat versions of branded treatments – even though those alternatives are restricted in many cases.Still, Seigerman said he believes primary care providers who prescribe pills may still encounter issues with pricing and insurance coverage.Holz pointed to the high rate of patients who discontinued Viking's drug for any reason over 13 weeks, which was around 28%.It has the same ingredient — semaglutide — that's in Wegovy, Ozempic and also in Rybelsus, the company's Type 2 diabetes pill that was approved in 2019. The Danish company added it will be "laser-focused on getting this product to patients without supply constraints" in the U.S. In a statement, Novo Nordisk CEO Mike Doustar said "we strongly believe in the efficacy" of the oral drug. The race to develop a more convenient obesity pill has been fraught, as companies such as Pfizer have had to scrap previous contenders and bring forward new ones. Both drugs work by mimicking a gut hormone called GLP-1 to suppress appetite and regulate blood sugar. But the Trump administration is putting some constraints on which Medicare beneficiaries will be eligible to receive GLP-1s for obesity and cardiovascular and metabolic benefits. Food and Drug Administration for use outside of approved clinical trials. So, in order to make an oral GLP-1, chemists had to find a way to make a nonpeptide that acts exactly like a peptide. Per the Times, “In a way, the very existence of orforglipron is a triumph of modern chemistry. As CNBC reported, “This more convenient, easier-to-manufacture pill could give Eli Lilly a major edge over Novo Nordisk and other rivals trying to enter the lucrative space." With these new results, the company now has all it needs to complete its submission to the FDA, with the potential for approval by the end of this year. Eli Lilly is seeking FDA approval for tirzepatide for chronic weight management. In March, Roche Holding entered into a $5.3-billion deal to co-develop and commercialize Zealand Pharma’s amylin drug, called petrelintide. Gastrointestinal side effects were relatively minimal, with about 10% of patients experiencing diarrhea and 8% vomiting. While most of them have at least some insurance coverage, more than half said they had difficulty affording the drugs. According to a recent poll by KFF, a nonprofit health policy research organization, 1 in 8 people is currently taking an injectable drug in this class. These pills should cost less than the injectables Woman Loses 130 Pounds and Finally Buys 1 Item of Clothing for the First Time But Seigerman said the drug's tolerability data — how well patients tolerate it — appears to be relatively in line with that of Novo Nordisk's oral semaglutide. A Novo Nordisk spokesperson added that 20% of weight loss was observed in nearly one-third of patients in the trial. The pill's efficacy also appeared to come in slightly below that of Novo Nordisk's oral semaglutide for obesity, which showed strong data in a separate study. News Tips The more convenient and easier-to-manufacture pill could also help Eli Lilly solidify its dominance in the growing segment as other drugmakers, including its main rival Novo Nordisk, race to bring weight loss pills to market. The weight loss approval further establishes Eli Lilly as a formidable competitor to Novo Nordisk in the budding obesity drug market, which Wall Street analysts believe could grow to a $100 billion industry by 2030. In a clinical trial, the brand found more than 500 people with type 2 diabetes who took orforglipron lost an average of 16 pounds, which equated to 8% of their body weight, according to Eli Lilly, which mimics results of its injection counterparts. Eli Lilly's orforglipron is a small-molecule drug that is absorbed more easily in the body and doesn't require dietary restrictions like Novo Nordisk's pill, which is a peptide medication. Pills, he said, could primarily attract new patients who are overweight or mildly obese and want to achieve only "modest" weight loss. But Apovian, of Brigham and Women's Hospital, said cost would be the only real reason to move patients who are doing well on injections to a pill. But pills likely won't move the needle to boost insurance coverage of GLP-1s for obesity in the U.S. Patients with insurance coverage for Novo Nordisk's oral drug can pay as little as $25 per month for the treatment. In the summer of 2022, just as the hoopla surrounding the diabetes and weight loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy was rising, doctors were surprised to see clinical trial results of a similar medication made by pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly. Amid the skyrocketing popularity of obesity drugs—JPMorgan Chase expects the market to exceed $100 billion by 2030—the race to develop a safe, effective oral weight-loss medication is, unsurprisingly, fierce. Producing pills is generally cheaper than making drugs delivered via injections, so the cost for the new oral medications could be lower. Certain Medicare patients will pay a copay of $50 per month for all approved uses of GLP-1 drugs, including diabetes and obesity treatment. Eli Lilly’s other obesity drug Mounjaro, which is approved for type 2 diabetes, has helped patients lose up to 21% of their weight in clinical trials. The companies agreed to extend lower government pricing for their GLP-1 drugs – $245 per month across all other nonstarting doses – to all 50 Medicaid programs for all covered uses. Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk already have programs to sell their weight loss drugs at a discount directly to cash-paying consumers, but the new agreements appear to take those efforts to boost access a step further. He said potential pills that are taken weekly, as opposed to daily, and have "compelling profiles could tilt the balance more towards orals" in the market. Despite that difference in efficacy, Risinger said the two pills are viewed as promoting roughly similar levels of weight loss. The highest dose of Novo Nordisk's Wegovy pill helped patients lose up to 16.6% of their weight on average at 64 weeks in one late-stage study. She expects retatrutide to become available on the market in 2027, but some online companies have been selling what they claim is the medication, prompting warning letters from the FDA. But both experts say not everyone needs to lose that much weight. Known as a triple-agonist, this medication from Eli Lilly is not yet approved by the FDA but has produced powerful results in clinical trials. This amylin drug from Eli Lilly is injected once a week. A phase 3 trial is scheduled to start in early 2026. The first includes those who are overweight, with a body mass index greater than 27 or with prediabetes or established cardiovascular disease. The new obesity drug coverage will be enabled through a pilot program designed to cover a majority of beneficiaries under Medicare Part D, which are the program's prescription drug plans. Wegovy and Zepbound have not been covered by Medicare for weight loss, "and they've only rarely been covered by Medicaid," Trump said in the Oval Office. The survey found that more than 40% say they'd take a new job in order to access coverage for obesity treatment, and about 1 in 2 people would stay at a job they hate to retain insurance coverage for obesity. There are also concerns about supply issues, given the shortages seen with GLP-1 drugs, Wegovy and Ozempic. He points to the importance of both clinical trials, and the significance of surpassing the 20% loss in body weight. Lilly is already a leader in the obesity market, where Zepbound is capturing the majority of new prescriptions. Researchers are beginning to wonder whether blockbuster drugs such as Wegovy, Ozempic and Zepbound could play a role in preventing cancer. There are no head-to-head studies directly comparing that pill with Eli Lilly's. Patients are supposed to drink no more than four ounces of water with the Wegovy pill and must wait 30 minutes before eating or drinking anything else each day. That includes Karen Galante, 42, of Horsham, Pennsylvania, who is taking a compounded version of semaglutide – the active ingredient in Wegovy – which she said is priced similarly to Novo Nordisk's new pill. "I don't see employers being highly motivated to add what is probably going to be another high volume, very high cost drug to their formulary when the direct-to-consumer pricing for it is so much cheaper," Crable said. But Crable said some employers have actually dropped coverage of GLP-1s for obesity in 2026 due to their high costs. Limits to the study Eli Lilly said those dropout rates were "highly correlated" to patients' starting body mass index and included discontinuations due to "perceived excessive weight loss." Roughly 18% of patients on the highest dose of the drug stopped treatment due to side effects, compared with 4% of those in the placebo group. In a note ahead of the findings, BMO Capital Markets analyst Evan Seigerman said his base-case assumption was for the drug to show weight loss of around 20% to 23%, with at least a 50% reduction in knee pain. More than 1 in 8 patients who took the drug were completely free from knee pain by the end of the trial, Eli Lilly said. The new users may include people who are afraid of needles, as well as patients who could benefit from existing injections but don't view their condition as severe enough to warrant a weekly shot. A GLP-1 pill from the company's chief rival Eli Lilly isn't far behind, with a U.S. approval expected within months. Patients are already getting their hands on the first GLP-1 pill for obesity from Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk — a once-daily drug that shares the same brand name as its popular injection Wegovy. UCSD's Grunvald said uptake of obesity pills is likely to be driven by primary care physicians, who treat the majority of eligible patients and may be more comfortable prescribing an oral drug.After seeing the results from Lilly's obesity pill trial, Seigerman moved some of his market share estimate from orforglipron to oral semaglutide.The number went up by $16 billion mainly thanks to orforglipron, which has risen from peak revenue assumptions of $22 billion to $41 billion.But data on how well some patients tolerated the pill in the trial came under some analysts' estimates.That is in line with or slightly below Wegovy's 15% average weight loss in phase three trials."Secondly, if you have to pay out of pocket, the pills are going to be a bit less expensive than the injections, so that's another reason," he said.Both trials followed adults who were obese or overweight with weight-related conditions, but excluded those with Type 2 diabetes.Several drugmakers, including Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, are betting on amylin analogs as part of the next wave of obesity treatments GLP-1 pill from Eli Lilly leads to weight loss, lowers blood sugar without injections Aronne has been studying weight loss drugs for many years and is a consultant for Eli Lilly. In the SURMOUNT-1 study, people who took the highest dose of tirzepatide, most of whom had a BMI of about 30 or higher but did not have diabetes, lost about 21% of their body weight during the 72 week study. It is seen as the one to beat in the amylin class, with early trials showing patients lost as much as 8.6% of their body weight in four months, with less nausea than Lilly and Novo’s current therapies. An estimated 24% of those who took the highest dose of Eli Lilly's pill reported vomiting, while 33.7% had nausea. Some investors raised concerns about the side effects and discontinuation rates in the trial of Eli Lilly's pill. Still, the slightly lower efficacy of Eli Lilly's pill may not be significant enough to deter patients from taking it. He also called the company's drug the "most efficacious pill," saying that no other products in development have been able to show its same level of weight loss in a late-stage trial. Eli Lilly in December released data showing that patients who initially took Wegovy or Zepbound shots maintained the majority of their weight loss after switching to the company's pill. Grunvald said obesity medicine specialists, who care for only about 5% to 10% of eligible patients, are more likely to continue favoring injections, which appear more effective than pills based on separate clinical trials. Skovronsky said the race to create the next great drug is not just about weight loss anymore, something more investors and analysts are starting to say."I think these oral GLP-1s mean having more tools in our toolbox, having more options for different people who might react differently to different medicines," he said.It is seen as the one to beat in the amylin class, with early trials showing patients lost as much as 8.6% of their body weight in four months, with less nausea than Lilly and Novo’s current therapies.Th pill could also tap into new markets in countries that don't have the resources for the cold supply chains needed to store and administer GLP-1 injections, Guggenheim's Fernandez said.In a late-stage trial funded by the pharmaceutical company, people lost 20% of their body weight on average after taking the drug for a year and four months.Eli Lilly’s other obesity drug Mounjaro, which is approved for type 2 diabetes, has helped patients lose up to 21% of their weight in clinical trials.But the weekly injections aren't for everybody — or every wallet.Those people were then randomized to take either Eli Lilly's pill or a placebo for another 52 weeks. Orforglipron is expected to book about $500 million in sales for its first year on the market, reaching 360,000 patients. Social media influencers, Hollywood celebrities and even billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk have reportedly used the popular injections to get rid of unwanted weight. Those who took tirzepatide lost an additional 21.1% of their weight on average, while patients in the placebo group gained back 3.3% of their weight on average. Another trial, called Surmount-3, evaluated tirzepatide in more than 500 patients who first engaged in "intensive lifestyle interventions" for 12 weeks. Patients took tirzepatide for 36 weeks and achieved 21.1% weight loss on average. The company's also exploring whether it can treat addiction, heart disease, inflammation and gastrointestinal conditions.Skovronsky thinks that pills could eventually become the primary way that obesity is treated around the world, and that oral drugs could have a larger market share than injectables.Clinical trials have been promising, as indicated by Phase 2 results published in 2023 in the New England Journal of Medicine.In 2025, weight-loss GLP-1s accounted for an average of 10.5% of total annual claims among employers, up from 8.9% in 2024 and 6.9% in 2023, IFEBP found.But Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly have both invested billions to increase manufacturing capacity for their injections, which has already started to pay off.The more convenient and easier-to-manufacture pill could also help Eli Lilly solidify its dominance in the growing segment as other drugmakers, including its main rival Novo Nordisk, race to bring weight loss pills to market.That means if the pill costs 10% to 15% less than Zepbound, it would be almost a 30% to 35% discount compared to Wegovy, according to Risinger.That compares to a 15% average weight loss with a Wegovy injection. That compares to a 0.1% reduction in patients who took a placebo during the same period. It helped lower hemoglobin A1c — a measure of blood sugar levels — by an average of 1.3% to 1.6% across different doses at 40 weeks, from a starting level of 8%. In a note earlier this month, TD Cowen analysts said they expected a discontinuation rate of 9%. An estimated 14% of those who took the highest dose experienced vomiting, while 16% and 26% had nausea and diarrhea, respectively. A Paradigm Shift in Global Healthcare Starting doses of upcoming obesity pills from Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk, pending approvals, will be $149 per month on TrumpRx, Medicare and Medicaid. Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk voluntarily agreed to reduce the prices the government pays for existing GLP-1 drugs already approved for diabetes and other uses to $245 a month, across all non-starting doses. Here's how much weight loss drugs could cost for patients under the new agreements, based on the details shared so far. More than half of those who have used the injectable drugs said they did so for diabetes, while about 4 in 10 said their goal was weight loss. In a note in August, Goldman Sachs analysts forecasted that pills will capture a 24% share — or around $22 billion — of the 2030 global weight loss drug market, which they expect to be worth $95 billion in total. 2026 is likely the year that two new oral weight loss drugs will reach patients in the U.S. It is among at least nine closely watched clinical trials on retatrutide, which works differently from the obesity and diabetes treatments on the market and appears to be even more effective at weight loss. Eli Lilly on Thursday said it expects to release data from a late-stage trial on its next-generation weight loss drug retatrutide later this year, a few months earlier than anticipated. He noted that uptake will be greater for the Wegovy pill initially since Eli Lilly's drug, orforglipron, is likely still months away from entering the market. Some patients currently using weekly injections may try pills, Risinger added, though not all will find a daily oral option more convenient. The Wegovy pill showed similar discontinuation rates, while about 10.3% of patients taking the highest dose of Eli Lilly's oral drug stopped treatment because of side effects. Apovian said she wants to see real-world data on how pills perform compared with injections, but separate late-stage trials already offer some clues. Detailed trial results The medications come at a time when obesity is the most prevalent chronic condition, affecting an estimated 650 million adults globally, and the growing recognition that many people are not able to lose significant amounts of weight through diet and exercise alone. In the tirzepatide study, 36% of people taking the highest dose lost 25% or more of their body weight. As researchers point out, for people who have bariatric surgery, typical weight loss is about 25% to 30% of their weight, one or two years after the surgery. The drug is already approved as an injectable prescription medicine for people with Type 2 diabetes. AbbVie Inc. agreed to pay as much as $2.2 billion in March for an amylin drug from Danish biotech Gubra, marking its first foray into the obesity market. As competition mounts, data on Novo Nordisk's experimental medicines also underwhelmed Wall Street and raised concerns about the growth of its drug portfolio beyond Wegovy and Ozempic. Eli Lilly's diabetes drug Mounjaro is viewed as a better treatment than Novo Nordisk's Ozempic, he noted. Some insurers, including Medicare, don't cover GLP-1s for obesity, which can cost roughly $1,000 per month before rebates. Behind them is a slate of drugmakers – from biotech upstarts to pharma giants – racing to win a slice of what some analysts expect could be a roughly $100 billion market by the end of the decade. In a release Tuesday, Eli Lilly said the new Houston plant will focus on manufacturing orforglipron and the company's pipeline of other small molecule medicines across different disease areas, including cardiometabolic health, oncology, immunology and neuroscience. Eli Lilly’s New Weight Loss Pill Helped People With Obesity Shed Nearly 15% In Late-Stage Trials He envisions pills like Lilly's orforglipron reaching people around the world. And that's not counting the other nine obesity drugs Lilly's testing in clinical trials. The trial began in 2023 and involved 3,127 adults with obesity, or overweight with a weight-related medical problem and without diabetes. The highest dose of the pill helped nearly 60% of patients lose 10% or more of their body weight. Patients taking the pill called orforglipron, an oral GLP-1 receptor, lost almost 12% of their body weight, or roughly 27 pounds, at 72 weeks, study results show. Lilly plans to submit orforglipron for regulatory review by the end of 2025. Some people experience nausea, diarrhea, constipation, and vomiting. Given what's happened with the spotty insurance coverage of Wegovy, clinicians who treat obesity anticipate similar challenges. "They're finally in the range of bariatric surgery," Aronne says, noting that it could give people an alternative to the surgery, with potentially few side effects. "These medicines are the opening to a whole new era of treating metabolic disease," says Dr. Louis Aronne, an obesity specialist at Weill Cornell Medicine, one of the co-authors of the SURMOUNT-1 study. Ahead of the data, BMO Capital Markets analyst Evan Seigerman said he expected less than 10% of patients on the highest dose of the pill to discontinue treatment due to side effects and lower rates of vomiting, nausea and diarrhea. But data on how well some patients tolerated the pill in the trial came under some analysts' estimates. He added that the pill's percentage of weight loss is "in the range" of what most people who are overweight or want to improve their metabolic health want to achieve. The drugs have similar side effects to the injectables, including nausea and diarrhea. In a study published in September in the New England Journal of Medicine, a 25 milligram semaglutide pill led to a 16.6% reduction in weight on average over 64 weeks. The pills need to be taken every day, but the injectables are taken once a week. Patients will take the pills daily, not weekly And it's working on an obesity pill, too. Patients lost 6.9% of their weight on average after those 12 weeks. Patients who switched to a placebo regained 14.8% of their weight on average over the same time period. Those who continued tirzepatide lost an additional 6.7% of their body weight on average after 52 weeks. The patients were then randomized to either continue taking the injection or switch to a placebo for an additional 52-week period. Tirzepatide is already approved in the U.S. and sold under the name Mounjaro for the treatment of diabetes. Grunvald said obesity medicine specialists, who care for only about 5% to 10% of eligible patients, are more likely to continue favoring injections, which appear more effective than pills based on separate clinical trials.Dan Skovronsky knows what makes a good obesity drug.More than half of those who have used the injectable drugs said they did so for diabetes, while about 4 in 10 said their goal was weight loss.Orforglipron's entrance into the market could also help the weight loss drug market reach more patients in the primary care setting who are not currently receiving treatment but could benefit from it, Seigerman said.The data comes under what some Wall Street analysts were expecting for Eli Lilly's oral GLP-1, with hopes for weight loss of around 15%.Other drugmakers are racing to bring their own oral options to the market, including Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Structure Therapeutics and Viking Therapeutics.Bariatric surgery still achieves superior weight loss compared to GLP-1 drugs, a recent study found.That offering bypasses insurers and pharmacy benefit managers, allowing patients to directly purchase Zepbound and some of Eli Lilly's other drugs from the company. More In Healthy Returns "Injectables have set a high bar, but this study reinforces the potential for an oral GLP-1 to be transformative in obesity care, particularly for patients who are hesitant to start or maintain injectable therapies," he continued. "This is a strong and promising result for an oral agent," said Dr. Jaime Almandoz, medical director of the Weight Wellness Program at UT Southwestern Medical Center, calling the weight loss "a significant and clinically meaningful outcome." Some doctors said the results appear to be comparable to, but overall slightly lower, the level of weight loss seen with Novo Nordisk's blockbuster weekly GLP-1 injection for obesity, Wegovy. Meanwhile, shares of rival Novo Nordisk, which is also working to bring an obesity pill to the market, jumped more than 7% on Thursday. The FDA advises against the use of Zepbound in patients with a personal or family history of medullary thyroid cancer – a cancer that forms inside your thyroid gland – or in people with a rare condition called Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia syndrome type 2. In July 2025, Lilly released the SURPASS-CVOT trial results, which proved that tirzepatide offered superior cardiovascular protection, including a 16% reduction in all-cause mortality. This resolution of supply-chain bottlenecks has allowed the company to meet the voracious global demand for tirzepatide, the active ingredient in its leading metabolic therapies. This recent rally underscores the company's status as the undisputed titan of the large-cap healthcare sector, a position bolstered by its pioneering work in metabolic health. That excludes the highest dose of Ozempic. Also on Thursday, Eli Lilly said it would lower prices by $50 on its own direct-to-consumer platform, LillyDirect, which already offers Zepbound at a discount to cash-paying patients. As part of the deals, Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk also made similar pledges to the ones other drugmakers have made as part of Trump's most favored nation agreements. The administration official said, "We are constraining the access for patients that will benefit clinically from it, we've worked very hard to strike a balance between broad access that just makes sure to capture patients that will benefit clinically." Another senior administration official said around 10% of Medicare beneficiaries will be eligible to receive GLP-1s for obesity and cardiovascular and metabolic benefits. "This is the biggest drug in our country, and that's why this is the most important of all the most favored nation announcements we've made," Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said during the briefing. The highest dose of Eli Lilly's drug also helped patients lose an average of 9.2% of their weight, or 19.7 pounds, compared with 5.3% weight loss, or 11 pounds, with Novo Nordisk's pill. But it may be too soon to establish a clear winner in the pill space, as there is no data comparing Eli Lilly's drug with a higher dose of Novo Nordisk's pill in patients with obesity. But Seigerman said it will also put pressure on smaller companies developing pills, such as Structure Therapeutics, to find a partner that can help them compete in the weight loss drug market with pharmaceutical behemoths like Eli Lilly. Many people who stop those shots regain much of the weight they initially shed. The FDA in November said it awarded a priority review voucher to that pill, which could expedite its review timeline to a few months. All four drugs were awarded the FDA’s Commissioner’s National Priority Vouchers last year. Aside from orforglipron, the FDA has also pushed back the timeline for Sanofi’s type 1 diabetes therapy Tzield after detecting concerning safety signals, including two seizures, one episode of blood clotting and one death, according to Reuters. But she cautions the prescription drugs need to be managed by a doctor no matter which form they come in. The weight loss it produces is “profound” and might be a good fit for people with a very high BMI, Levy added. Some trial participants slimmed down so dramatically that they stopped taking retatrutide over “perceived excessive weight loss,” Eli Lilly noted in the news release. That compares to about 21% average weight loss for Zepbound, Eli Lilly’s GLP-1 drug. Eli Lilly experimental obesity drug could beat rivals in total weight loss for patients Overweight or obese patients who took 36 milligrams of the pill once a day lost 13.5% of their body weight on average after 36 weeks in Eli Lilly's phase two trial. But the company is only giving doses of up to 36 milligrams in phase three trials on orforglipron. In patients with obesity, that implies weight loss of around 13% to 15%, according to a February note from JPMorgan analyst Chris Schott. Eli Lilly expects weight loss in people with diabetes to be "significantly less" than patients with obesity who don't have diabetes, the company's Chief Scientific Officer Daniel Skovronsky said on an earnings call in February. The company has said it expects to unveil data from five studies in patients with Type 2 diabetes and two trials in people with obesity in 2025. Offering the first oral version of a so-called GLP-1 could help Eli Lilly capture an even greater share of the market for that popular class of weight loss and diabetes drugs. The oral drug met the trial's main goal of demonstrating superior weight loss maintenance compared with a placebo, among people who previously experienced a plateau in their progress while taking the injections. Those results support the company's decision to use a slower dosing schedule over eight weeks to make the drug more tolerable in phase three studies.Launched in June 2025, this priority program sought to drastically shorten regulatory review timelines, from the normal 10–12 months down to 1–2 months.The combination is said to slow the emptying of the stomach, making people feel full for longer and suppressing appetite by slowing hunger signals in the brain.Seigerman said he expects "a lot of nuances in the go-to-market campaign for these drugs," adding "that's going to matter."Patients taking the pill called orforglipron, an oral GLP-1 receptor, lost almost 12% of their body weight, or roughly 27 pounds, at 72 weeks, study results show."It's kind of a natural preference for some people and even some prescribers."But if they mirror injection costs — often higher than $1,000 per month — employers may be reluctant to add the drug to their formularies, he said.Suchita Shah, a senior partner at consultancy firm BCG in its U.S. healthcare practice, said the launch of the Wegovy pill and later Lilly's would drive the weight-loss market this year, though as more treatments hit the market patients would develop their preferences. A pill is a welcome alternative for patients like Willow Baillies, 29, who has been injecting herself with cheaper, compounded versions of Zepbound because her insurance does not cover the branded medication. Still, some patients who don't mind taking injections may continue their current treatment regimen, UCSD's Grunvald noted. Fueled by those treatments, Eli Lilly has become the largest global pharmaceutical and health-care company by market cap, with a market value of about $814 billion as of Monday. Drugs like tirzepatide and rival Novo Nordisk's Ozempic and Wegovy catapulted to the national spotlight in recent years for being weight loss "miracles." Patients who took tirzepatide in that 2022 trial lost up to 22.5% of their body weight. The weight reduction in the trial is "substantial and highly clinically meaningful," Dr. Robert Gabbay, the ADA's chief scientific and medical officer, said in a statement Some experts have criticized the increased use of the drugs as a potentially damaging extension of diet culture. It expects the remaining 19% slice to go to other emerging pills, the analysts said. More than 1 in 5 patients on the highest dose also experienced dysesthesia, which is an unpleasant nerve sensation. Around 43% of patients on the highest dose experienced nausea, while roughly 33% and 20.9% had diarrhea and vomiting, respectively. In a note Thursday, JPMorgan analyst Chris Schott said retatrutide's tolerability data, or how well patients handle the treatment, is "somewhat worse vs Zepbound, though not surprising, in our view." It is the first late-stage data on retatrutide, which works differently from existing injections and appears to be more effective. They would also be easier to manufacture at a time when Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk have struggled to make enough drugs to keep up with spiking demand. The company can't run studies on medicines from competitors that aren't approved yet, Skovronsky noted.The injectable drug, tirzepatide, alone resulted in up to 22.5% weight loss in a previous phase three trial.Additional trial data showed that a higher dose of the pill could deliver greater efficacy – more than 15% weight loss – surpassing the results seen with the highest dose of Eli Lilly's orforglipron.She's also co-author of a new book about obesity with Oprah Winfrey, called "Enough."On safety, Schott said he expects a "very low probability" of any issues that could put the entire development program for orforglipron at risk.It's not known yet whether the pill option will cost less than the injectables, Azar said.That includes investments aimed at increasing manufacturing of active pharmaceutical ingredients and capacity for the final stages of production for both current and future injectable and oral products. Obesity injections have long been hard for patients to get, due in part to spotty insurance coverage and list prices of roughly $1,000 per month. She said an oral drug would also bring other benefits, like making travel easier because it won't require refrigeration, like injections do. Deborah said she would consider an oral GLP-1 because she is already accustomed to taking pills for other prescriptions. "Secondly, if you have to pay out of pocket, the pills are going to be a bit less expensive than the injections, so that's another reason," he said. On Thursday, the company released new data to support its aim of fast-track approval, including topline results from another study, called SURMOUNT-2, which shows weight loss of up to 15.7% among people with Type 2 diabetes and obesity. An experimental weight loss drug from Eli Lilly & Co. helped patients lose weight with few side effects, according to the summary of a small study that suggests the company has another foothold in the obesity market. Certain Medicare patients will pay a copay of $50 per month for all approved uses of injectable and oral GLP-1 drugs, including diabetes and obesity treatment. There are seven late-stage studies on the pill, including five diabetes trials and two obesity studies. The highest dose of the pill helped patients lose 7.9% of their weight, or around 16 pounds, on average after 40 weeks. The pill's weight loss data, along with rates of side effects and treatment discontinuations, were in line with what some Wall Street analysts were expecting. Metsera, a company that was recently bought by Pfizer, is also investigating monthly GLP-1 and amylin analog drugs. It's the first drug of its kind to complete a phase 3 trial. It may be more convenient or preferable for people who can’t stand needles or would just prefer to swallow a pill. But an oral GLP-1 could be the best fit for those who "prioritize simplicity or convenience or have these logistical challenges with injections," he said. The FDA has also extended its review for Boehringer Ingelheim’s kinase inhibitor zongertinib, which the company is proposing as a treatment for non-small cell lung cancer. The Tzield delay will extend its review by more than a month, Reuters reported, while bitopertin will have to wait two additional weeks for a verdict. Disc Medicine’s bitopertin, being developed for the rare blood disorder porphyria, was also delayed amid questions surrounding its efficacy data and its risk of being abused. The target action date for orforglipron now falls on April 10, 2026, the publication reported, citing internal regulatory documents it was able to review. Still, access to tirzepatide and other diabetes and obesity treatments remains a big challenge. "In light of increasing rates of both obesity and overweight in the United States, today's approval addresses an unmet medical need." The active ingredient in the drug, tirzepatide, has already been approved for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes under the name Mounjaro since May 2022. The cash prices of Novo Nordisk's Wegovy pill range from $149 to $299 per month, depending on the dose, which is slightly less than the newly lowered cash prices of injections. For some people, pills may serve as a more convenient — and potentially cheaper — alternative to today's blockbuster injections. Higher doses of tirzepatide helped patients with obesity lose roughly 20.9% of their body weight on average in late-stage studies, when analyzing all patients regardless of discontinuations. One concern with current weight loss drugs is that they can lead to the loss of lean muscle mass.