Eli Lilly’s investigational obesity pill helped lower weight and blood sugar in patients with obesity and type 2 diabetes, but the Phase 3 results may not be enough to assuage concerns about the competitiveness of the drug.

The medication, called orforglipron, is the most advanced small-molecule GLP-1 in development. Treatment with the drug led to 9.6% weight loss at the highest dose over 72 weeks, compared with 2.5% in the placebo group when analyzing all participants regardless of discontinuations, Lilly said Tuesday.

Patients on the highest dose had a 1.7 percentage-point reduction in a measure of blood sugar called A1C, while those on placebo had a 0.5 percentage-point reduction. At the end of the trial, 67% of patients on the highest dose had an A1C level below 6.5%, the threshold f

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