Eli Lilly Delays Approval Bid for Obesity Drug to 2027

Eli Lilly is hitting pause, not stop, on its next big obesity drug. The company now plans to seek regulatory approval for retatrutide in early 2027, pushing back a timeline that once had filings starting this year, CNBC reports. Lilly says the delay is about completing manufacturing and quality-control work, not concerns over how the drug performs. And that performance has been eye-catching: In two late-stage trials, adults with obesity and Type 2 diabetes lost up to about 21% of their body weight over 80 weeks, while those with severe obesity and cardiovascular disease shed roughly 23%.

The weekly injection also improved blood sugar. Dubbed a "triple G" drug, retatrutide acts on three hormones and is central to Lilly's plan to defend its lead over Novo Nordisk in a weight-loss market some analysts anticipate will approach $100 billion by the 2030s. "Retatrutide has shown powerful efficacy, and we believe it could be an important future tool in the management of cardiometabolic health," Lilly Executive VP Kenneth Custer says in a statement, per Reuters. Daniel Skovronsky, the company's chief scientific and product officer, says the drug sets a "new benchmark" for weight loss, per the Wall Street Journal.