Shares in pharmaceuticals firm Eli Lilly (LLY) ballooned higher today after revealing its new needle-free weight loss drug had performed strongly in trials.
Lower Weight and Blood Sugar
The group, whose stock raced over 11% higher in pre-market trading, said the daily obesity pill called orforglipron had in late-stage trials helped Type 2 diabetes patients lower their blood sugar and body weight.
The highest dose of the pill helped patients lose 7.9% of their weight, or around 16 pounds, on average after 40 weeks. Eli Lilly also said patients saw no plateau in their weight loss by the time the study ended, suggesting that they could lose more weight after that period.
The pill’s weight loss data, according to CNBC, along with rates of side effects and treatment discontinuations, were in line with what some Wall Street analysts were expecting. However, some people did experience some side-effects including 14% of those who took the highest dose suffering vomiting, while 16% and 26% had nausea and diarrhea, respectively.
Overall, around 8% of patients who took the highest dose of the pill discontinued treatment due to side effects.
More Access for Patients
Despite this the results bring the drug, which unlike rival treatments such as Novo Nordisk’s (NVO) diabetes injection Ozempic and weight loss injection Wegovy, can be taken orally closer to market. And what a sizeable market it is with the weight loss and diabetes sector, according to analysts at Morningstar and Pitchbook, likely to be worth $200 billion by 2031.
Despite the rewards, some drug manufacturers including Pfizer (PFE) are finding that development of the drugs can be difficult to achieve.
There are seven late-stage studies on the Eli Lilly pill, including five diabetes trials and two obesity studies. It expects to file for regulatory approval of the pill for obesity by the end of the year, and for diabetes in 2026.
LLY’s chief executive David Ricks said the pill “could be readily manufactured and launched at scale for use by people around the world.” He added: “If approved, orforglipron could help more patients access the treatments and alleviate the supply shortfalls of the popular injections on the market.”
Is LLY a Good Stock to Buy Now?
On TipRanks, LLY has a Strong Buy consensus based on 19 Buy and 1 Hold rating. Its highest price target is $1,190. LLY stock’s consensus price target is $1,035 implying an 40.84% upside.
