New study data has confirmed Club holds Eli Lilly's top spot within the hotly contested obesity drug race. The news: Eli Lilly's obesity drug Zepbound defeated its major rival Wegovy – made by Denmark's Novo Nordisk – in its first trial against the fast-growing weight-loss drugs. Patients who took Zepound lost a median of 20.2% of their body weight after 72 weeks of taking the drug, in comparison with 13.7% for many who took Wegovy, Eli Lilly said in a news release Wednesday. Additionally, nearly 32% of people that took Zepbound lost a minimum of 1 / 4 of their body weight, in comparison with 16% on Wegovy, in keeping with the Indianopolis-based drugmaker. Shares of Eli Lilly, a longtime portfolio name, rose greater than 2.5% to around $833 apiece on Wednesday. Novo Nordisk rose about half a percent. Big picture Zepbound and Wegovy are a part of the booming class of obesity drugs often called GLP-1, which some on Wall Street expect to be price a minimum of $100 billion by the tip of the last decade. Originally used to treat type 2 diabetes, its weight reduction capabilities have captivated the general public and Wall Street alike in recent times, driving shares of Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk to extraordinary heights. Lilly, particularly, rode the GLP-1 wave and have become the world's most beneficial healthcare company at nearly $800 billion. The drugs mimic the naturally occurring hormone GLP-1 to manage blood sugar and suppress appetite, resulting in weight reduction. Zepbound's energetic ingredient tirzepatide also targets a second hormone, abbreviated GIP, which is believed to supply efficacy benefits over Wegovy. Both medications are once-weekly injections. In fact, the outcomes released Wednesday by Eli Lilly aren't necessarily a surprise given existing clinical trial data each drugs in isolation. However, given the caveats involved when comparing the outcomes of independent studies, it's price officially seeing how Zepbound and Wegovy fared in a head-to-head comparison. The peer-reviewed results will likely be published next yr. “We expect HTH (head-to-head) clinical trial results to help drive Zepbound's market share gains relative to Wegovy,” Leerink analysts wrote in a note to clients on Wednesday. Analysts added that they desired to see what the tolerability of each drugs looked like – something was missing from Lilly's press release. Novo Nordisk was first to market, with Wegovy receiving Food and Drug Administration approval in 2021 to treat obesity. Its sister drug Ozempic, which shares an energetic ingredient called semaglutide with Wegovy, was approved in 2017 for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. Ozempic might be probably the most well-known GLP-1 drug and a few people take it for weight reduction. The FDA approved Zepbound in November 2023. Lilly's Mounjaro, whose energetic ingredient is tirzepatide, was approved in May 2022 for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. The success that Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly have achieved within the GLP-1 market has sparked a fierce race within the pharmaceutical industry to find the subsequent hit obesity drug. Novo and Lilly are aggressively defending their turf and investing billions of dollars to expand the manufacturing capability needed to satisfy current demand while advancing clinical trials for next-generation treatments. Investors expect a significant update on Novo's next-generation CagriSema by the tip of the yr and imagine it could lead to weight reduction of greater than 25% in late-stage trials. The drug combines a compound called cagrilintide with semaglutide. The lead product in Eli Lilly's pipeline is retatrutide, which resulted in a median weight reduction of 24% in a 48-week midstage study published last summer. A phase 3 study is underway. Bottom line: We did even higher with our decision so as to add to our position in Eli Lilly last week – shortly thereafter, we received the very essential news that the Biden administration has proposed changes that may extend GLP-1 insurance coverage to hundreds of thousands of Americans with Medicare treatment and Medicaid, which currently don’t have any access. We now have experimental results that show that, as we now have long suspected, Zepbound is superior to Wegovy. Eli Lilly shares were sold last month amid concerns over President-elect Donald Trump's appointment of drug industry critic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the highest U.S. health official. However, the stock is now up greater than 14% since closing at about $727 apiece on November 18th. Our trading restrictions prevented us from adding to our position that day, although we still communicated our desire to members. LLY YTD Berg Eli Lilly YTD “I think [Lilly stock] should return to the $900 level,” Jim Cramer said on the morning briefing on Wednesday. “I think the only deciding factor is…do it.” [Lilly CEO] Does Dave Ricks have the capability to satisfy demand? That's really the issue.” Since their launch, both Zepbound and Mounjaro have spent a significant amount of time on the FDA's drug shortage list. However, as of Wednesday, the FDA says the shortages have been resolved. Lilly executives said in the late October the company announced it plans to expand drug production capacity even further in 2025. (Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust is long-LLY. See a full list of stocks here.) 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New study data has solidified the club's position Eli Lilly's pole position within the hotly contested race for obesity drugs.
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