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Eli Lilly Says Obesity Drug Delivers Significant Weight Loss, Improves Knee Pain and Sleep Apnea in Trials

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Eli Lilly Says Obesity Drug Delivers Significant Weight Loss, Improves Knee Pain and Sleep Apnea in Trials

Eli Lilly (LLY) shares rose early Monday after the drugmaker said its experimental obesity drug retatrutide delivered significant weight loss in two clinical studies and showed "meaningful" improvements in knee osteoarthritis pain and sleep apnea.

The company conducted two phase-three studies of retatrutide, involving 2,876 patients, according to a statement on Saturday.

In one of the trials in adults with obesity, participants given the highest 12 mg dose of retatrutide lost an average of 28.3% of their body weight over 80 weeks, according to Lilly. About 65.3% of patients on the high dose achieved a body mass index below 30, no longer meeting the criteria for obesity, the company said.

The study also showed that the drug reduced knee osteoarthritis pain by up to 73.1% and cut moderate-to-severe obstructive sleep apnea severity by up to 36.1 events per hour, or 60.6%.

The stock gained 4.4% in the most recent premarket activity.

"Across triumph-1 and transcend-T2D-1, retatrutide delivered substantial weight loss, meaningful (glycated hemoglobin) reduction, and improvements in knee osteoarthritis pain and moderate-to-severe obstructive sleep apnea," Kenneth Custer, executive vice president at Lilly Cardiometabolic Health, said in the statement. "These results highlight retatrutide's potential across the cardiometabolic spectrum."

In a second clinical study in adults with type 2 diabetes, retatrutide met its primary endpoint, reducing glycated hemoglobin by up to 2% and body weight by up to 16.8% at 40 weeks.

In a separate statement Sunday, the company said overweight or obese women taking the highest dose of its obesity pill Foundayo, or orforglipron, lost weight across all stages of menopause in late-stage trials. In April, the US Food and Drug Administration approved Foundayo for adults with obesity or overweight with weight-related medical problems.

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