The daily pill can operate as well as ozempic for weight loss and blood sugar

A daily pill can be as effective in reducing blood sugar and helping weight loss in people with type 2 diabetes as popular injecting drugs Mounjaro and Ozempic, according to the results of a clinical trial announced by Eli Lilly on Thursday morning.

The medication, Orforglipron, is a GLP-1, a class of drugs that have become blockbusters due to their weight loss effects. But GLP-1 on the market are now expensive, must be kept in the refrigerator and must be injected. A pill that produces similar results has the potential to become much more widely used, although it should also be expensive.

Lilly said she would request approval from the Food and Drug Administration later this year to market Orforglipron for obesity and at the beginning of 2026 for diabetes. Industry analysts expect the drug to gain the approval of next year and eventually become a major blockbuster. Eli Lilly should not announce a price for the medication until after winning approval.

“What we see starting is fighting for the future of the obesity market,” said Craig Garthwaite, health care economist at the Northwestern University.

The company announced on Thursday a summary of its results in a press release, as pharmaceutical companies are required to do so immediately after receiving the results of the study that could affect their stock market course.

But Lilly did not publish the underlying data of his test and the results he revealed had not been examined by external experts. The company said that it would present detailed results at a meeting of diabetes researchers in June and would publish them in a review evaluated by peers.