Lilly Drug Shows Double Ozempic Weight Loss

Eli Lilly says its experimental once-weekly drug retatrutide produced substantially greater weight loss and blood-sugar improvement than Ozempic in an 80-week Phase 3 trial of nearly 1,300 adults with Type 2 diabetes. Participants on the 12-milligram dose lost an average 20.9% of their body weight, compared with 9.4% on Ozempic’s 2-milligram dose; A1C fell by 2.2 percentage points with retatrutide versus 1.8 points with Ozempic. Retatrutide activates three hormone receptors involved in appetite, blood sugar and energy use, while Ozempic acts on GLP-1; Lilly says the candidate could become a future treatment for diabetes and obesity and plans to seek U.S. approval next year. The findings are company-reported, and the trial did not compare retatrutide with Novo Nordisk’s higher-dose obesity drug Wegovy or establish that it prevents heart attacks or strokes. Nausea and diarrhea were common side effects, and participants on the highest retatrutide dose discontinued treatment because of side effects more often than those taking Ozempic.