Eli Lilly’s potential obesity pill helped patients lose less weight than investors had hoped during a trial, sending shares in the drugmaker down more than 14 per cent in early trading.
The pharmaceutical group said on Thursday that patients taking orforglipron lost an average of 12.4 per cent of their body weight, at the lower end of the market’s expectations for the closely watched medicine. Trial participants taking a placebo lost 0.9 per cent.
A pill is expected to offer less dramatic weight loss than injectables, where Lilly’s Zepbound currently offers the most weight loss at an average of 23 per cent.
Evan Seigerman, an analyst at BMO Capital markets, said investors had been hoping for a minimum weight loss of about 13.7 per cent of body weight.
Novo Nordisk’s oral weight loss drug, which has been submitted for approval in the US, helped trial participants lose about 15 per cent of their body weight. Shares in Novo Nordisk, Lilly’s main rival in the obesity market, jumped as much as 14 per cent.
Mr Seigerman also said the trial showed the rate of side effects when taking Lilly’s pill – nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea – was slightly worse than expected.
The trial result was announced as Lilly reported its second-quarter results, beating analysts’ expectations, and raised the midpoint of its guidance for the full year. David Ricks, Lilly’s chief executive, said it was “another quarter of strong performance”.
The pharmaceutical industry is under pressure from the Trump administration to lower prices voluntarily, or face a “Most Favoured Nation” drug pricing policy that would peg US drug prices to the lower prices in other developed nations.
Mr Ricks warned against importing “foreign pricing controls”, arguing it would harm patients and US competitiveness.
The company reported revenues of $15.6 billion (€13.4 billion) in the three months to June, up 38 per cent on the same period last year. Sales of Zepbound, prescribed for obesity, soared by 172 per cent, and Mounjaro, prescribed for diabetes, jumped 68 per cent.
Lilly now expects full-year revenue between $60 billion to $62 billion, up from its previous range of $58 billion to $61 billion.
The optimistic outlook contrasts sharply with rival Novo Nordisk, which lowered its forecasts for profit and sales growth last week, wiping €60 billion off its value. Novo Nordisk has been losing ground to Lilly in the US market, as well as facing competition from copycat versions of its weight loss and diabetes drugs.
Investors had been excited that Lilly could dominate the market for oral weight loss drugs with orforglipron.
While the trial result disappointed investors, the once-daily pill met the trial’s goals, including showing it can have a positive impact on heart health, and Lilly said it was on track to submit the medicine to regulators for approval later this year.
Just over 10 per cent of the high-dose patients dropped out of the Lilly trial due to adverse side effects, the company said. No liver safety issues were seen.
In April, Lilly shares jumped almost 15 per cent when another trial, among diabetic patients, showed it could help them lose weight and lower their blood sugar.
Daniel Skovronsky, Lilly’s chief scientific officer, told analysts they should be wary of comparing trials over different time periods and in different populations.
“Wall Street is kind of focused on the exact numbers here, the cross trial comparisons, [but] I don’t think that carries over to the real world,” he said. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2025
