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Data from a new study show that patients who received Eli Lilly’s LLY Mounjaro (tirzepatide) significantly lost more weight than those who received Novo Nordisk’s NVO Wegovy (semaglutide). Both drugs are approved to treat obesity in adults.

While the medications were shown to be effective in achieving weight loss, the findings indicate that Mounjaro may be more beneficial. After three months, patients taking the Lilly drug lost an average of 5.9% of their body weight compared with 3.6% for those on Novo’s drug. This trend also continued at six and 12 months, with Mounjaro users achieving an average weight loss of 10.1% and 15.3%, respectively, versus 5.8% and 8.3% for Wegovy users.

The data also showed that patients taking Lilly’s drug were significantly more likely to reach weight loss milestones. For instance, they were 1.8 times more likely to lose at least 5% of their body weight, 2.5 times more likely to achieve a 10% weight loss, and 3.2 times more likely to shed 15% or more body weight compared to those taking Novo’s drug. These findings indicate that Mounjaro may be a more potent option for weight management.

These results were also published on the JAMA Internal Medicine website on Monday.

All the above findings were based on data which was analyzed by researchers of the healthcare data analytics firm Truveta. This study evaluated a head-to-head effectiveness comparison between the Lilly and Novo drugs in more than 18,000 adults who had begun taking one of the two medications in the real world between May 2022 and September 2023.

Truveta researchers also stated that while the study results are in alignment with existing evidence on both medications from clinical studies, further research is required to compare the effects of the drugs on other key health outcomes, such as heart-related events.

Year to date, Lilly’s shares have surged 57.5% compared with the industry’s 21.5% growth. During the same period, Novo’s stock rose 38.3%.

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Apart from obesity, the FDA has also approved different versions of tirzepatide and semaglutide to treat type 2 diabetes (T2D). Lilly markets its T2D version of the drug under the brand name Zepbound, while Novo markets a T2D version of its drug as Ozempic.

The obesity market has garnered much interest lately. Lilly and Novo have been seeing exponential sales growth of their obesity drugs, which is boosting revenues and profits. The companies even achieved a market cap north of $500 billion. However, these firms have been unable to cope with existing demand and are facing delays in fulfilling orders amid continued supply constraints and product shortages.

Per research conducted by Goldman Sachs, the obesity market in the United States is expected to reach $130 billion by the end of this decade. This is also evident from the fact that Lilly and Novo are not only investing heavily to optimize their production capacities but have also started evaluating multiple other novel obesity candidates in their pipeline.

Based on the success seen by Lilly and Novo in the obesity space, several other companies like Viking Therapeutics VKTX, Amgen AMGN and Roche are also developing their obesity drugs in clinical studies.

Viking’s VK2735 is being evaluated as a subcutaneous (SC) injection and as an oral pill in a mid-stage study and an early-stage study, respectively. The drug has shown immense potential, having demonstrated superior weight reduction capabilities in both clinical studies. Viking expects to advance both formulations of the drug into further development before 2024-end.

Alongside its first-quarter earnings report, Amgen announced that it has completed an interim analysis of data from a mid-stage study, MariTide. Though AMGN did not discuss any numbers, it was ‘very encouraged’ with the interim data. Based on these results, Amgen also initiated activities to expand manufacturing capacity for the drug.

Roche recently forayed into the obesity market after it acquired privately owned Carmot Therapeutics for $2.7 billion in January.

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Zacks Rank

Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk both currently carry a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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