Metabolic disorders
Closely watched data from Eli Lilly and Viking Therapeutics this month have reignited the discussion around oral weight-loss drugs—and their ultimate place within the anti-obesity medication market.
The mad rush for safe and effective obesity drugs has winners—including Eli Lilly’s Zepbound and Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy—and losers. Here are five molecules that never made it to the market.
While it’s impossible to make apples-to-apples comparisons of the many obesity candidates with so many differences across clinical trials, we at BioSpace are giving it our best shot.
With results from highly anticipated trials of Eli Lilly’s orforglipron and Viking Therapeutics’ VK2735 “underwhelming” investors, William Blair’s Andy Hsieh predicts weight loss pills will play a bigger role in low- and middle-income countries than in the U.S.
A draft copy of an upcoming MAHA report reveals a strategy in lockstep with recent HHS actions such as reviving the Task Force on Safer Childhood Vaccines; Viking Therapeutics reports robust efficacy from mid-stage oral obesity candidate but is tripped up by tolerability concerns; Novo Nordisk wins approval for Wegovy in MASH; and Lilly takes a pricing stand.
Viking Therapeutics’ VK2735 achieves a 10.9% placebo-adjusted weight loss at 13 weeks, but a less than ideal safety profile marred the results.
While the 10-fold increase in dose over injectable Wegovy has raised questions about the launch, Novo Nordisk has assured investors it has the manufacturing capacity to roll out oral semaglutide without restrictions on supply.
Patients who are prescribed Wegovy or Ozempic can now use GoodRx to access the medications at just $499 a month if they skip insurance. This is not the first time Novo has partnered with a pharmacy to offer the blockbuster drugs.
The label expansion could help Novo Nordisk “help shift the momentum” for Wegovy, after a difficult start to 2025, according to analysts at BMO Capital Markets.
The Boston-based AI/ML startup focuses on endocrine and cardiometabolic diseases and will use that expertise to generate new small molecule obesity medications for Lilly.
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