Lilly's retatrutide outperforms Ozempic in phase 3 trial, cutting blood sugar and weight more

Eli Lilly tested its triple-G candidate retatrutide against Novo Nordisk's Ozempic (semaglutide) in an open-label phase 3 study involving about 1,300 adults with type 2 diabetes whose glucose was not adequately controlled with metformin, with or without an SGLT2 inhibitor.

After 80 weeks of weekly dosing, both retatrutide doses (9 mg and 12 mg) lowered A1C by 2.2 percentage points, compared with a 1.8-point drop for Ozempic 2 mg, meeting the trial's primary endpoint.

Patients receiving retatrutide lost roughly 20% of body weight (19.5% at 9 mg and 20.9% at 12 mg), about twice the 9.4% reduction seen with Ozempic, satisfying the key secondary endpoint.

The study also reported greater improvements in several cardiovascular risk markers, including non-HDL cholesterol, triglycerides and systolic blood pressure, for the retatrutide groups.