Eli Lilly CEO expects new diet pill to be approved next year

Elie Lilly expects its experimental weight-loss pill to be approved as early as early next year, CEO David Ricks told Bloomberg TV on Monday.

The company is expected to release key data from late-stage trials of the drug, or forglipron, by the middle of this year.

Eli Lilly is pushing to market the pill because it competes with Novo Nordisk and smaller competitors for a significant share of the booming weight-loss drug market. Eli Lilly’s Zepbound and Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy dominate the industry, but drugmakers and their competitors have worked to develop improved versions of these drugs.

The pills would be more convenient for patients than current injectable forms. They would also be easier to manufacture at a time when Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk are struggling to make enough drugs to meet high demand.

Eli Lilly said orforglipron helped patients lose up to 14.7% of their weight in a mid-term trial, compared with 2.3% in people who took a placebo.

Eli Lilly shares were down less than 1% Monday afternoon.