Top weight loss pills -
adults are obese, making a successful pill a massive opportunity. It's too early to crown a winner, especially since pivotal data from several pharmaceutical companies is slated to come out later this year.
And there's still the all-important issue of pricing for the major players. But for now, one experimental oral drug from Eli Lilly appears to have an edge over pills from Novo Nordisk and Pfizer — even though it may not win U. approval first. All three manufacturers are developing oral versions of GLP-1s , a class of drug that mimics a hormone produced in the gut to suppress a person's appetite.
Novo Nordisk's popular Wegovy and Ozempic treatments, which sparked a weight loss industry gold rush last year, are weekly GLP-1 injections also known as semaglutide. The pills are easier to manufacture than injections, which come in the form of single-use pens. That means the oral drugs could potentially help alleviate the supply shortages plaguing their injectable counterparts.
Pills are also typically cheaper than injections, though it's unclear if that will be the case with the obesity pills. Novo Nordisk has a low-dose oral version of semaglutide that has the same list price as Ozempic for a monthly package of 30 tablets.
That pill, marketed as Rybelsus , is approved only for Type 2 diabetes. None of the three drugmakers has provided estimates for how much the new obesity pills would cost. Novo Nordisk has one important advantage: The Danish company has already released phase three clinical trial results for its high-dose version of oral semaglutide , which is intended for weight management, and told CNBC it expects to file for Food and Drug Administration approval later this year.
Eli Lilly is still in the middle of phase three clinical trials on its oral drug, orforglipron, meaning it's likely to hit the market later. Still, analysts are confident in the competitive edge of orforglipron in the long run, especially after Eli Lilly unveiled phase two clinical trial results last week that showcased the drug's strong efficacy profile.
According to Eli Lilly's phase two results, overweight or obese patients who took 45 milligrams of orforglipron once a day lost up to That compares with a weight loss of 2. Eli Lilly's results appear consistent with the weight reduction caused by Novo Nordisk's pill, but were achieved over a shorter trial period.
Overweight or obese patients who took 50 milligrams of Novo Nordisk's drug once a day saw an average weight loss of Bank of America analyst Geoff Meacham said in a Sunday research note that Eli Lilly's available orforglipron data "compares quite favorably" to Novo Nordisk's oral semaglutide, "cross trial comparison caveats aside.
Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Louise Chen told CNBC that orforglipron could potentially achieve an even greater level of weight loss over a longer trial period. The company's phase three clinical trials on orforglipron will study the drug over longer time periods.
At least for now, analysts say Eli Lilly's pill may also have the upper hand over Pfizer's oral GLP-1, danuglipron , which is still in phase two clinical trials.
Patients with Type 2 diabetes who took a milligram version of danuglipron twice a day lost around 10 pounds on average after 16 weeks, according to results from one phase two clinical trial.
It's difficult to compare danuglipron's efficacy with that of other oral GLP-1s due to differing patient populations and the lack of longer-term data on the drug.
A Pfizer spokesperson told CNBC that the company is still studying the drug in further phase two clinical trials and "would also look to have longer data" beyond the week mark in the future. As a service to our readers, Harvard Health Publishing provides access to our library of archived content.
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LeWine, MD , Chief Medical Editor, Harvard Health Publishing Some people who struggle with weight loss have been able to find assistance from several FDA-approved weight-loss medications, such as bupropion plus naltrexone Contrave , phentermine Adipex-P , phentermine plus topiramate Qsymia , and orlistat Xenical, Alli.
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