NEW YORK, Dec. 4 (Xinhua) -- In the first head-to-head test, Eli Lilly's Zepbound obesity drug helped people lose significantly more weight than its main competitor, Novo Nordisk's Wegovy.
People taking Zepbound lost 20.2 percent of their body weight on average after 72 weeks of treatment in the Lilly-sponsored study, compared with a 13.7 percent loss for Wegovy patients, Lilly said on Wednesday.
That translated into an average 50-pound loss for people who took Zepbound, while Wegovy users lost 33 pounds.
"Lilly's new study is the first randomized clinical trial to demonstrate that Zepbound could induce more weight loss than Wegovy in head-to-head testing," said The Wall Street Journal in its report about the finding.
Previous studies sponsored by Lilly and Novo Nordisk found that each of the drugs helped people who are obese lose significant amounts of weight, but those trials didn't compare Zepbound and Wegovy against each other.
"Lilly will probably cite the results from its new study in the company's Zepbound marketing. It could give Lilly an edge with doctors and patients in one of the fastest-growing and most lucrative prescription-drug markets," said the report.
Novo Nordisk responded by saying Wegovy is the only anti-obesity medicine proven to reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes in people with heart disease and obesity, it added.
