Eli Lilly said a late-stage trial of its new weight-loss drug showed it helped patients on high doses reduce their body weight by about a fifth raising hopes among doctors and investors that it could become a blockbuster treatment to tackle the global obesity epidemic.
The US drugmaker said its drug Tirzepatide showed an average loss of 15 per cent of body weight on a low dose to 22.5 per cent on a higher dose, and the results could pave the way for an expedited application for regulatory approval in the US.
“We view this as a potential breakthrough for the treatment of obesity,” said Jeff Emmick, vice-president of product development at Eli Lilly. “It is the first pharmacological treatment that’s demonstrated more than 20 per cent weight loss on average in a phase 3 clinical trial.”