(Reuters) -Eli Lilly on Wednesday said its experimental pill led to more weight loss and better control of blood sugar in patients with diabetes than oral semaglutide, the active ingredient in Danish rival Novo Nordisk’s diabetes and weight-loss medicines.
The late-stage head-to-head trial compared two different doses of the two drugs on patients with diabetes to assess glycemic control and weight loss. Two groups received either a 12 mg or 36 mg dose of orforglipron. Two other groups received either a 7 mg or 14 mg dose of oral semaglutide.
Novo sells the oral semaglutide under the brand name Rybelsus for patients with type 2 diabetes to control blood sugar.
U.S. regulators are also reviewing a 25 mg dose of oral semaglutide that Novo is developing for people who are overweight or obese.
Both Lilly and Novo, which are market leaders with their injectable drugs, are racing to launch their obesity pills, which still require approval by the Food and Drug Administration.
In the trial, which enrolled 1,698 adults with type 2 diabetes, Lilly’s orforglipron showed greater improvements in A1C – a measure of blood sugar over time – meeting the main goal of the study.
Patients who took the highest 36 mg dose of Lilly’s drug lost an average of 8.9 kgs (19.7 lb) or 9.2% of their weight compared to 5 kgs (11 lb) or 5.3% with the 14 mg dose of oral semaglutide.
Orforglipron is a small-molecule pill that is easier to manufacture and package than wildly popular injectable drugs for obesity, such as Lilly’s Zepbound and Novo’s Wegovy, which are peptide mimics of the appetite-controlling GLP-1 hormone.
Orforglipron appeared stronger across the board, with even the lower dose outperforming the highest approved dose of oral semaglutide, Kenneth Custer, president of Lilly Cardiometabolic Health, told Reuters. He added that the company would not hesitate to compare the drugs in other indications.
“Orforglipron represents the most promising approach to creating an effective small-molecule GLP-1,” Custer said.
Lilly’s once-daily pill lowered patients’ A1C by 2.2% at the 36 mg dose and by 1.9% at the 12 mg dose. That compared with an A1C reduction of 1.4% for patients taking the 14 mg dose of oral semaglutide and 1.1% for those on the 7 mg dose.
Detailed results from the trial will be presented at a future medical meeting, Lilly said.
(Reporting by Sriparna Roy in Bengaluru and Maggie Fick in Vienna; Editing by Caroline Humer and Lisa Shumaker)
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