Side A · Liner notes
STAT+: Lilly says ‘triple-G’ drug beat Novo’s Ozempic in diabetes study
Nutrition · Words by Elaine Chen · Released
Data add to expectations that the drug will be one of Lilly’s greatest growth drivers.
Eli Lilly on Wednesday said that its investigational drug was more effective at lowering blood sugar and cutting weight than Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic in a large diabetes study, further boosting the competitive profile of its medicine.
In the head-to-head study, people on the highest dose of Lilly’s drug, called retatrutide, saw a 2.2 percentage-point reduction in a measure of blood sugar called A1c after 80 weeks, while those on Ozempic saw a 1.8 percentage-point reduction.
Those on the highest dose of retatrutide also lost 20.9% of their weight, a highly significant amount considering that people with diabetes don’t tend to lose as much weight on the drugs. Meanwhile, those taking Ozempic lost 9.4% of their weight. These results are based on analyses looking only at the participants who stayed on treatment, not all participants.
