GLP-1
Lilly met analysts’ sky-high expectations with 28.3% weight loss over 80 weeks for the triple hormone receptor agonist retatrutide in a highly anticipated readout on Thursday.
While the manufacturer is on the list of authorized GLP-1 importers, FDA inspectors found the company relabeled APIs from another site in a potential attempt to “circumvent safeguards.”
BioSpace examines how the FDA approval of Eli Lilly’s oral obesity drug Foundayo has ignited a key race with Novo Nordisk.
Eli Lilly’s latest manufacturing expansion will support production of obesity blockbusters and next-gen assets, while the new Lilly Lebanon Advanced Therapies site will take experimental genetic medicines from research to commercialization.
Analysts and investors alike had been eagerly awaiting sales figures for Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy pill. The answer blew past expectations by 86%.
The selloff in Eli Lilly’s shares was “overdone,” according to RBC Capital Markets, which noted that the overall safety profile of Foundayo remains favorable.
In its latest biopharma pipeline report, Deloitte warned that the growing importance of a small pool of potential mega-blockbusters raises the risk of “significant value destruction from a single program failure.”
Foundayo became available on April 9 and has already reached 20,000 patients as Eli Lilly builds its marketing machine for the weight loss pill.
Analysts will be watching as a generic version of semaglutide—marketed by Novo Nordisk as Wegovy for weight loss—launches in Canada as a test case for future price erosion in the U.S.
Two of the biggest insurance providers have expressed reluctance to participate in the government’s BALANCE program that would have made GLP-1 drugs more affordable to patients.
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