Eli Lilly says closely watched combo obesity regimen boosts weight loss in mid-stage trial

Lilly just released promising data showing that it's experimental combo regimen showed stronger weight loss compared to the company's existing obesity drug in a mid-stage trial. It's a closely watched treatment that takes Lilly's experimental drug targeting a gut hormone called amylin and combines it with the company's blockbuster tirzepatide drug, which is the active ingredient in Zepbound and Mounjaro. In this trial on patients with obesity and type 2 diabetes, the combo treatment helped patients lose up to roughly 23% of their weight on average at 48 weeks. That surpasses the nearly 15% weight loss caused by a high dose of tirzepatide alone in the study. We also saw a greater reduction in a key measure of blood sugar levels among those people who took the combo compared to the people on tirzepatide. Lilly told me this combo could be helpful for people who didn't respond to or see the results that they wanted on existing GLP-1 products and also said it aligns with their goal of bringing a variety of treatment options for patients. We did see higher side effects with the combo compared to tirzepatide in the trial, but Lilly cautioned against reading too much into that since it's phase two trials. And Lilly plans to refine dosing and help lower those side effects in phase three trials that will begin at the end of this year. So, that will be the real test for this treatment, Mike.