Eli Lilly sauntered into the American Diabetes Association meeting with a commanding lead in the metabolic space and put down more evidence for its pipeline, including new pill Foundayo and next-gen asset retatrutide, in new indications.
Lilly’s tour de force landed in New Orleans over the weekend with weight loss studies showing the prowess of newly approved oral Foundayo and up-and-coming triple agonist retatrutide.
First on the docket was a presentation spanning multiple studies of retatrutide and showing benefits across weight loss, A1C, knee pain and sleep apnea. Lilly had already revealed that patients who took retatrutide in the Phase 3 TRIUMPH-1 trial achieved 28.3% weight loss, or 70 pounds, at 80 weeks. The presentation Saturday at the American Diabetes Association Scientific Sessions added an exclamation point to that achievement.
Also in TRIUMPH-1, retatrutide reduced osteoarthritis knee pain by 73% and moderate-to-severe sleep apnea severity by 60%, representing a reduction of 36 events per hour.
In the Phase 3 TRANSCEND-T2D-1 trial of patients with diabetes, patients who took retatrutide achieved A1C reductions of up to 2%, with weight loss of 36.6 pounds or 16.8% at 40 weeks. Almost half of patients achieved normal A1C.
“By addressing weight, glycemia and obesity-related complications together, these results highlight retatrutide’s potential across the cardiometabolic spectrum and reinforce our commitment to delivering options that meet patients’ needs and preferences,” Kenneth Custer, president of Lilly Cardiometabolic Health, said in a June 6 news release.
Lead trial investigator Ania Jastreboff of the Yale School of Medicine highlighted retatrutide’s potential to address multiple diseases at once.
“Obesity drives more than 200 downstream diseases, yet we have historically treated those conditions one at a time and in silos,” Jastreboff said in a statement. “These findings demonstrate what may be possible when we treat obesity and impact overall health, and what this could mean for people living with obesity and its related complications.”
The next day, Lilly shifted the spotlight back to Foundayo, the oral GLP-1 that launched last quarter to rival Novo Nordisk’s oral Wegovy. At ADA, Lilly showed weight loss in women across all stages of menopause at week 72 from the Phase 3 ATTAIN program.
In ATTAIN-1, women in perimenopause lost up to 31.4 pounds, or 14.4% of body weight, while patients who were postmenopause lost 28.2 pounds or 14.1%.
ATTAIN-2 featured women with diabetes who were experiencing menopause. Similarly, weight loss was achieved for women across all stages of menopause.
These results are key, Lilly explained, because many women who go through menopause see weight gain due to hormonal changes. This weight gain is difficult to address and any loss can be hard to sustain.
“For women who have seen their weight become harder to manage precisely when their health is more at risk, this is what progress could look like,” said Rachel Batterham, Lilly senior vice president of medical innovation and external engagement.
Lilly will present more data from its diabetes and obesity pipeline tomorrow at ADA, including more for Foundayo in diabetes and longer-term data for Mounjaro.
