TLDR
- Eli Lilly stock rose more than 4% in early Monday trading after releasing new drug trial data over the weekend.
- Its next-gen obesity drug retatrutide reduced sleep apnea severity by 60.6% and cut knee pain by up to 73.1% in Phase 3 trials.
- Lilly’s Foundayo pill showed weight loss results in women across all stages of menopause, based on data from 1,500 trial participants.
- Novo Nordisk reported Wegovy has hit 3 million prescriptions since January — but its stock fell 3% in early European trading.
- Eli Lilly stock is up 47% over the past year; Novo Nordisk is down more than 40% over the same period.
Eli Lilly had a busy weekend. The company dropped a wave of positive trial data on Saturday and Sunday, and Wall Street responded on Monday morning — pushing LLY stock up more than 4% in premarket trading, making it the second-best performer in the S&P 500 behind Micron.
The headlines centered on retatrutide, Lilly’s experimental next-generation obesity drug. Phase 3 trial results presented at the American Diabetes Association conference in New Orleans showed the weekly injection reduced moderate-to-severe obstructive sleep apnea severity by 60.6% in adults with obesity.
That same trial showed retatrutide cut knee osteoarthritis pain by up to 73.1%.
These results build on data Lilly had already released showing patients with obesity lost 28% of body weight on the drug, and adults with type 2 diabetes saw meaningful drops in blood sugar levels.
Retatrutide is Lilly’s so-called “triple G” drug — it targets GLP-1, GIP, and glucagon receptors, putting it a step beyond current dual-action drugs like Zepbound, which is already approved for sleep apnea.
In one of the studies, 2% of patients with diabetes taking the lowest dose experienced major adverse cardiovascular events. Lilly noted these events were not necessarily caused by the drug. Full results were published in the Lancet on Saturday.
Foundayo Adds Another Layer
The weekend data dump didn’t stop there. On Sunday, Lilly released analysis showing its pill Foundayo was tied to weight loss in women at every stage of menopause. The findings came from 1,500 women enrolled in the company’s ATTAIN-1 and ATTAIN-2 Phase 3 clinical trials.
That’s a meaningful expansion of the drug’s potential patient base, covering pre-, peri-, and post-menopausal women.
Novo Had Good News Too — Markets Didn’t Care
Novo Nordisk also had a positive update on Monday. The Danish company said its Wegovy obesity pill has now crossed 3 million prescriptions since it became available in pill form in early January — the equivalent of one new prescription every five seconds.
Novo called it one of the biggest U.S. pharmaceutical product launches in history.
But the market wasn’t impressed. Novo stock fell 3% in early European trading, with its American depositary receipts pointing 1.8% lower ahead of the U.S. open. The Danish stock market was closed Friday, so some of Monday’s move was catching up.
Novo’s stock has had a rough stretch, falling more than 40% over the past year. Lilly, by contrast, is up 47% over the same period.
LLY traded at roughly a 4% gain Monday morning as the latest round of data continued to reinforce its position in the obesity drug race.
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