(Reuters) -Eli Lilly said on Wednesday its experimental pill, orforglipron, helped reduce blood sugar levels in two late-stage trials.
The oral drug is designed to mimic the appetite-suppressing GLP-1 hormone targeted by the company’s blockbuster injection tirzepatide, sold under the brand names Mounjaro and Zepbound.
In one of the studies, Lilly’s pill helped lower A1C, a measure of blood sugar over time, by up to 1.7% compared to 0.8% with AstraZeneca’s drug dapagliflozin. The head-to-head trial was conducted in adults with type 2 diabetes inadequately controlled on metformin, a widely used to drug used to treat high blood sugar levels.
In the other trial, orforglipron lowered A1C by an additional 2.1% when taken with insulin glargine.
(Reporting by Sriparna Roy and Siddhi Mahatole in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)