(Bloomberg) -- Eli Lilly & Co. said its weight-loss drug Zepbound outperformed rival Novo Nordisk A/S’s Wegovy in the first head-to-head trial of the two blockbusters.
In a study sponsored by Lilly, people treated with Zepbound lost an average of 20% of their body weight — or about 50 pounds — over 72 weeks, while those who got Wegovy shed 14%. The results confirm earlier trials of the two drugs that indicated a stronger impact from Zepbound.
While Novo was first to start selling GLP-1 drugs to fight obesity, the findings offer Lilly an opportunity to catch up in what has become the fastest-growing corner of the pharmaceutical industry, a market that’s expected to hit $130 billion by the end of the decade. Studies like these can be used by drug companies to argue that their products are superior alternatives.
While the results aren’t a complete surprise, they’ll be “beneficial from a marketing perspective,” Bloomberg Intelligence analysts John Murphy and Michael Shah said in a note. The short-term impact may be limited because both drugmakers are still trying to keep up with demand in the market, the analysts said.
Lilly shares rose as much as 1.8% at the New York market open. Novo’s rose 0.3% Wednesday in Copenhagen and have climbed about 12% this year.
Side effects were mostly gastrointestinal-related and similar for both drugs. The full results will be published in a peer-reviewed journal and presented at a medical meeting next year, Lilly said.
Next Generation
On Wednesday, Novo said that losing pounds isn’t always the most important thing, pointing to its own clinical trial that showed Wegovy was able to reduce the risk of heart attacks, strokes and other major cardiovascular events by 20% compared with a placebo. This change was shown “regardless of change in weight,” the company said in a statement.
“We know that treating this misunderstood disease is more than just a number on a scale,” Novo said.
In an effort to keep its lead, the Danish drugmaker is also testing a next-generation compound called CagriSema that it hopes will help patients lose at least 25% of their body weight. It anticipates results by the end of this year.
Lilly, meanwhile, is trying to raise the bar with an experimental compound called retatrutide that delivered 24% weight loss in a smaller study last year; a larger trial is being conducted now. The U.S. drugmaker is also studying whether Zepbound can show the same kind of cardiovascular benefits seen with Wegovy, though it doesn’t expect results until 2027.
Novo is also conducting patient trials to see whether CagriSema can beat Zepbound, with an 800-person study in people with obesity due to deliver results next year. The company started two additional trials this year of how the two medicines can lower blood sugar and weight in people with type 2 diabetes; they’re due to complete in 2026.
The two rivals are locked in a “perpetual game of leapfrog,” Mizuho’s Jared Holz said in a note before the Zepbound versus Wegovy results were released.
Research has shown that the more weight patients lose, the more they cut their risk for related health conditions, such as diabetes and heart disease. Lilly’s latest study may help convince doctors, patients and cost-conscious insurers that Zepbound, which has a monthly list price of $1,060 in the US, is a better long-term investment than Wegovy, which is priced at $1,349.
The trial included 751 participants in the US and Puerto Rico who received the highest dose they could tolerate of either Zepbound or Wegovy. While the results achieved with Zepbound were in line with previous trials cited in the drug’s label, the weight loss linked to Wegovy was at the low end of the range seen in two other long-term trials.
--With assistance from Gerry Smith and Karen Leigh.
(Updates with analyst comment, opens shares.)
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