Lilly starts pulling ahead in race for $30 billion weight loss market

SAN DIEGO — It was Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy that set off a new era in obesity medicine, delivering unprecedented levels of weight loss and working its way into popular culture, inescapable ads, and hundreds of thousands of medicine cabinets.

But Eli Lilly has been following close behind with new treatments, and after dropping result after result from successful trials at the American Diabetes Association conference here this past weekend, the Indianapolis-based drugmaker looks to be gaining an edge over its Danish competitor in the race to supply obesity drugs.

From an effective obesity pill, to the use of its diabetes drug Mounjaro in weight loss, and finally to a highly anticipated injectable that cut the most weight seen with any obesity drug, Lilly showcased a slew of promising new treatments to the over 11,000 attendees.