An experimental drug has enabled people with Obesity or who are overweight to lose about 22% of their body weight, about 52 pounds on average, in a large trial, the drug's maker announced on Thursday.
Eli Lilly has not yet submitted the data for publication in a peer-reviewed medical journal or presented them in a public setting. Medical experts were amazed by the claims.
Dr. Sekar Kathiresan is the chief executive of Verve Therapeutics, a company focused on heart disease drugs. He said that drugs like Eli Lilly are going to change the treatment of obese people.
Dr. Kathiresan has no ties to Eli Lilly.
The drug appears to be better than any other anti-obesity medication currently available in the US, according to Dr. Lee Kaplan, an obese expert at the Massachusetts General Hospital.
Dr. Kaplan said he was not involved in the new trial or the development of the drug.
Participants in the study had a body mass index of 38 and weighed 231 pounds at the beginning. A B.M.I. of 30 or higher is considered to be obese.
At the end of the study, those taking the higher doses of the Eli Lilly drug weighed about 180 pounds and had a B.M.I. The results are much better than those seen in weight-loss trials and are only seen in surgical patients.
The principal investigator of the study said that some trial participants lost enough weight to fall into the normal range.
People with a B.M.I. over 40, or those with a B.M.I. from 35 to 40, are not eligible for the surgery. The risk of developing diabetes is much higher for people who are obese.
A spokeswoman for Eli Lilly said the company did not have a public timetable for seeking approval of the drug.
Patients who are obese would need to take a drug called Tirzepatide for the rest of their lives, as they do for blood pressure or cholesterol drugs.
The new drug can close the treatment gap, according to Dr. Robert F. Kushner, an obese expert at the Feinberg School of Medicine.
A 10 percent weight loss can be achieved with diet and exercise. It's not enough to make a big difference in the lives of people who are obese.
The only other way to lose weight is with surgery. Many people don't want the surgery and are ineligible.
We are on the verge of a new way of treatment with the approval of the Eli Lilly drug and the semaglutide.
Prices may be a barrier. Insurers don't pay for weight loss drugs. The list price for the drug Wegovy is more than $1300 per month.
If approved, experts worry that the price might be the same as before. Many people who could benefit from weight loss may not be able to afford the drugs.
The Eli Lilly study involved 2,539 people. Many were obese but also had risk factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, cardiovascular disease or sleep disorders.
They were grouped into four groups. All of them received diet counseling to cut their calories in half.
One group was randomly assigned to take a placebo, while the other three received different amounts of the drug. Patients injected themselves with the drug.
The investigators found that those taking the highest dose lost the most weight. The average weight loss for participants in the placebo study was 5 pounds.
Dr. Ahmad said seeing the results was an emotional moment for her.
She said she didn't think they could reach this degree of weight loss with a medicine.
People who are overweight or obese were told for a long time that the problem was theirs to solve. Diet and exercise were prescriptions, and they didn't work for many people. Most people try diet after diet to regain weight they lost.
The situation began to change last year when the FDA approved semaglutide from Novo Nordisk. The drug can help people lose weight.
incretins are a new class of drugs that have naturally occurring hormones that slow stomach emptying, regulate insulin and decrease appetite. The side effects include nausea and vomiting. Most patients are not bothered by these effects.
The bar for weight loss with drugs is raised by Incretins. They pose difficult questions about the future of surgery. There are new versions of incretins that are more powerful than Eli Lilly's drug.
The reductions observed with the Eli Lilly drug are comparable to surgical weight loss, even without them.
Patients who have had surgery describe mixed results. A board member of the Obesity Action Coalition had surgery to lose weight.
She was 500 pounds when she had the operation 20 years ago, which allowed her to get down to 250 pounds. Her weight crept back up to 490 pounds over the years. She was too heavy for the operating table and needed heart surgery. Diets did not help.
She was able to get down to 430 pounds with the help of semaglutide. Ms. Bramblette would like to try the Eli Lilly drug if it becomes available.
Ms. Bramblette said she would not choose to be this size.
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