Eli Lilly said its experimental oral GLP-1 drug orforglipron outperformed Novo Nordisk’s oral semaglutide in a head-to-head phase 3 trial.
In a 52-week study involving 1,698 adults with Type 2 diabetes, the highest dose of orforglipron lowered average blood sugar by 2.2%, compared with 1.4% for the highest dose of oral semaglutide, according to a Sept. 17 news release from Eli Lilly.
The highest dose of Eli Lilly’s drug also resulted in patients losing an average of 9.2% of their weight, compared to 5.3% weight loss with Novo Nordisk’s pill.
Orforglipron has also shown clinical improvement across cardiovascular risk factors, including non-HDL cholesterol, systolic blood pressure and triglycerides, the release said.
Novo Nordisk, meanwhile, plans to seek FDA approval for its high-dose version of Wegovy, Bloomberg reported Sept. 16. Martin Holst Lange, MD, PhD, Novo Nordisk’s chief scientific officer, said high-dose Wegovy offers the same weight loss potential as Eli Lilly’s Zepbound.
