In a new head-to-head trial, drugmaker Eli Lilly said Wednesday that patients using its obesity medication Zepbound lost significantly more weight than those who were given competitor Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy.
Eli Lilly said that users of Zepbound, which contains the antidiabetic medication tirzepatide, shed 47 percent more pounds compared to those who were given the other semaglutide drug.
After 72 weeks, those who received weekly injections of Zepbound lost 20.2 percent of their body weight, or just over 50 pounds, while Wegovy users lost 13.7 percent, or more than 33 pounds.
About 31 percent of people taking Zepbound shed at least a quarter of their body weight, as Wegovy lost users lost just 16.1 percent.
“Given the increased interest around obesity medications, we conducted this study to help health care providers and patients make informed decisions about treatment choice,” Dr. Leonard Glass, senior vice president of global medical affairs at Lilly Cardiometabolic Health, said in a statement.
“We are thrilled that today’s findings showed the superior weight loss of Zepbound, which helped patients achieve 47 percent more relative weight loss compared to Wegovy,” he continued. “Zepbound is in a class of its own as the only FDA-approved dual GIP and GLP-1 receptor agonist obesity medication, and it’s changing how millions of people manage this chronic disease.”
“As a leader in obesity care, Novo Nordisk welcomes all innovation in this field. This is a top-line announcement, and we will await the complete data, including the distribution of treatment doses in the two groups, once the trial has been peer-reviewed and/or published,” a Novo Nordisk spokesperson told The Independent.
“Treatment of obesity is about improving health, wellbeing and prolonging lives. It goes beyond weight loss. Wegovy® (semaglutide injection) is the only obesity medicine proven to reduce the risk of cardiovascular (CV) death, stroke and heart attack in people with known heart disease and overweight or obesity,” they said. “In addition, Wegovy is the only obesity medication recommended by the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) 2024 guidelines for treatment of chronic coronary syndromes.”
The randomized clinical trial, in which participants were divided into groups to compare the drugs, included 751 adult participants across the U.S. who were affected by obesity or were overweight, with at least one other medical condition that affected their health like hypertension, sleep apnea, cardiovascular disease, and the metabolic disorder dyslipidemia. They did not have diabetes.
After the results of the trial were released, Reuters reported that Eli Lilly’s shares rose marginally in premarket trading.
Eli Lilly said it would continue to evaluate the trial’s results, which would be published in a peer-review journal and presented at a conference next year. Previous research from both companies found that the drugs helped people lose weight, but didn’t pit the two drugs against each other.
Both drugs are different versions of the diabetes treatments Mounjaro and Ozempic, which are produced by Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk, respectively.
The news comes as both companies have boosted production. Zepbound brought in $1.3 billion in sales for Eli Lilly in this year’s third quarter.
Zepbound has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for chronic weight management in adults with obesity. The administration approved a new indication for use for Wegovy earlier this year to reduce the risk of cardiovascular death, heart attack, and stroke in adults with cardiovascular disease who are either overweight or have obesity.
With reporting from The Associated Press
