Drug Discovery and Development

  • Home Drug Discovery and Development
  • Drug Discovery
  • Women in Pharma and Biotech
  • Oncology
  • Neurological Disease
  • Infectious Disease
  • Resources
    • Video features
    • Podcast
    • Webinars
  • Pharma 50
    • 2025 Pharma 50
    • 2024 Pharma 50
    • 2023 Pharma 50
    • 2022 Pharma 50
    • 2021 Pharma 50
  • Advertise
  • SUBSCRIBE

Eli Lilly’s obesity focus helps propel promising 2023

By Brian Buntz | October 6, 2023

Eli Lilly logo2023 is shaping up to be a blockbuster year for Eli Lilly. With the company’s stock soaring by almost 54% since the beginning of the year, analysts are largely upbeat about Lilly’s expanded focus on obesity and diabetes treatments. While the company has developed insulin for a century, the company is now broadening its horizons with Mounjaro (tirzapetide), a diabetes treatment used off-label for obesity. An FDA approval for tirzapatide, a dual GLP-1/GIP receptor agonist, in obesity could occur later this year.

While Lilly has seen its stock surge in 2023 thus far, its performance over the past month hasn’t been as robust — declining by close to 6% over the past month.

Momentum

“We continue to be pleased with the strong momentum of Mounjaro as more type 2 diabetes patients benefit from the medicine,” said Dave Ricks, chairman and CEO of Eli Lilly, in the company’s second quarter earnings call. In fact, despite ramping up production, the company acknowledged potential challenges in meeting the soaring demand for the drug.

On Wednesday, Eli Lilly announced a series of leadership changes, including the appointment of a new chief for its diabetes and obesity unit. This reshuffle comes in anticipation of a pivotal regulatory decision on Mounjaro, a potential blockbuster drug, for its use as a weight-loss treatment.

Tirzepatide projections from JP Morgan | Dulaglutide projections from GlobalData

GLP drugs are emerging as mega-blockbusters. Lilly’s competitor, Novo Nordisk, saw its H1 operating profit increase from 37.5 billion Danish kroner in 2022 to 48.9 billion Danish kroner in 2023. Chief Financial Officer Karsten Munk Knudsen noted in an earnings call that the company’s growth was “probably the strongest growth in the history of the company.” One of the biggest sales drivers for the firm is semaglutide, which in 2021 became the first new drug for chronic weight loss since 2014.

Next-gen Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly obesity initiatives

Novo Nordisk continues to work to expand the indications of semaglutide — in isolation in combination with cagrilintide. It has three Phase 3 trials namely CagriSema, Oral Sema, and a study on semaglutide 7.2 mg, exploring different administration methods and dosages for obesity treatment. The pharma giant also has a phase 1 study of amycretin in Japanese men with obesity. 

Lilly is also testing next-gen approaches. Its oral nonpeptide GLP-1 receptor agonist orforglipron has shown promising results in clinical trials. In a study featured in NEJM, participants experienced a weight reduction ranging from 9.4% to 14.7% at 36 weeks, in contrast to the 2.3% in the placebo group.


Filed Under: Drug Discovery and Development, Metabolic disease/endicrinology
Tagged With: diabetes treatments, Eli Lilly, FDA approval, GLP-1/GIP receptor agonist, Mounjaro, obesity drug developments, tirzapatide
 

About The Author

Brian Buntz

As the pharma and biotech editor at WTWH Media, Brian has almost two decades of experience in B2B media, with a focus on healthcare and technology. While he has long maintained a keen interest in AI, more recently Brian has made making data analysis a central focus, and is exploring tools ranging from NLP and clustering to predictive analytics.

Throughout his 18-year tenure, Brian has covered an array of life science topics, including clinical trials, medical devices, and drug discovery and development. Prior to WTWH, he held the title of content director at Informa, where he focused on topics such as connected devices, cybersecurity, AI and Industry 4.0. A dedicated decade at UBM saw Brian providing in-depth coverage of the medical device sector. Engage with Brian on LinkedIn or drop him an email at bbuntz@wtwhmedia.com.

Related Articles Read More >

Mounjaro
GLP-1 use tripled among non-diabetics, hitting $5.8B in 2022
University of Ottawa students harness tobacco relative to grow Ozempic-like drugs
tirzepatide
JAMA: Potential rare vision complications linked to blockbuster GLP-1s
Ozempic
Compounders and drugmakers clash over compounded weight-loss drugs with FDA in the middle
“ddd
EXPAND YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND STAY CONNECTED
Get the latest news and trends happening now in the drug discovery and development industry.

MEDTECH 100 INDEX

Medtech 100 logo
Market Summary > Current Price
The MedTech 100 is a financial index calculated using the BIG100 companies covered in Medical Design and Outsourcing.
Drug Discovery and Development
  • MassDevice
  • DeviceTalks
  • Medtech100 Index
  • Medical Design Sourcing
  • Medical Design & Outsourcing
  • Medical Tubing + Extrusion
  • Subscribe to our E-Newsletter
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • R&D World
  • Drug Delivery Business News
  • Pharmaceutical Processing World

Copyright © 2025 WTWH Media LLC. All Rights Reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media
Privacy Policy | Advertising | About Us

Search Drug Discovery & Development

  • Home Drug Discovery and Development
  • Drug Discovery
  • Women in Pharma and Biotech
  • Oncology
  • Neurological Disease
  • Infectious Disease
  • Resources
    • Video features
    • Podcast
    • Webinars
  • Pharma 50
    • 2025 Pharma 50
    • 2024 Pharma 50
    • 2023 Pharma 50
    • 2022 Pharma 50
    • 2021 Pharma 50
  • Advertise
  • SUBSCRIBE