Lilly Reports Retatrutide Trial Results Against Ozempic

Eli Lilly said its experimental drug retatrutide produced greater average weight loss and reduced blood sugar more than Ozempic 2 mg in an 80-week Phase 3 trial involving adults with type 2 diabetes. The company also reported that more participants stopped retatrutide because of adverse events than stopped Ozempic. The TRANSCEND-T2D2 trial enrolled 1,298 adults whose diabetes was not adequately controlled with metformin, either alone or with an SGLT2 inhibitor. Participants were assigned to weekly retatrutide at 9 mg or 12 mg, or Ozempic at 2 mg, the highest approved dose used in the comparison. Lilly announced the topline results on October 28. At week 80, Lilly reported average weight loss of 19.5% with retatrutide 9 mg and 20.9% with 12 mg, compared with 9.4% with Ozempic. Those figures came from an efficacy-estimand analysis, which Lilly said estimates outcomes had participants remained on treatment under the study’s conditions. Both retatrutide groups had an average A1C reduction of 2.2 percentage points, compared with 1.8 points for Ozempic. Participants’ average starting A1C was 8.3. The trial’s primary comparison tested whether retatrutide 12 mg was at least as...