Daniel Skovronsky of Eli Lilly talks about the obesity pill

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Eli LillyThe obesity pill closely approaches to enter the market.

The medicine, orforglipron, succeeded in another late stage, helping patients with obesity and type 2 diabetes to lose weight and reduce their blood sugar levels. Eli Lilly now has all the data you need to start presenting the approvals of the daily pill for chronic weight control by the end of the year.

It could become a new needle alternative in the Blockbuster LP-1 market, which helps relieve supply deficits and access obstacles to existing injections. Eli Lilly's pill is easier to manufacture than a shot and does not require dietary restrictions, and some health experts expect it to cost less than injections.

Eli Lilly's scientific director Daniel Skovronsky, broken down the results of the trial with CNBC.

Skovronsky said Orforglipron spent the so-called scope-2 trial “with great success.” The study It is the second of two large phase three trials for the treatment of obesity. He said that the pill met the main and secondary objectives of the study, and their safety and tolerability data were “as we expected, consisting of the [GLP-1] class.”

Skovronsky said it is difficult to compare the essay to separate studies in other LPG-1. But in general, he described the data “in line with the injectables” in patients with obesity and type 2 diabetes, a population notoriously “difficult to treat” that has difficulties in losing weight.

“To obtain this type of unprecedented efficacy in this population, and to achieve it with an oral, it is really satisfying and exciting,” Skovronsky said.

The highest dose of the pill helped patients lose 10.5% of their weight, or 22.9 pounds, on average, at 72 weeks. The weight loss of the drug in the study was 9.6% when analyzing all patients, regardless of interruptions.

Skovronsky said that more than half of patients in the medicine lost at least 10% of their body weight in the trial, which called a “level of weight loss that changes life.”

Orforglipron also reduced hemoglobin A1C, a measure of blood sugar levels, at an average of 1.3% to 1.8% in different doses at 72 weeks, from an initial level of 8.1%. At the end of the study, most patients no longer fulfilled the criteria for type 2 diabetes depending on that metric.

“I think it is exciting: a great relief now to have the complete data package that confirms the security and confirms the efficiency” of Orforglipron, said Skovronsky.

Eli Lilly's shares rose more than 4% on Tuesday afternoon after the results. The measure occurs after investors mistreated the company's shares in early August, when the pill did not reach Wall Street expectations in a separate trial in patients with obesity.

“I think that after the previous data reading, people could have asked questions” about Orforglipron, said Skovronsky. “This reading puts those questions to rest.”

Some health experts have expressed concerns about side effects rates and patients who stopped treatment in the trial.

Eli Lilly said that 10.6% of patients in the highest dose stopped taking the pill due to side effects, which were mainly related to gastrointestinal and mild to moderate in gravity.

Some experts have pointed out that interruption rates due to side effects on late stage tests in the obesity injections of Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly is about 7% or less.

It is estimated that 23.1% of those who took the highest dose of Eli Lilly pill experienced vomiting, while 36.4% and 27.4% had nausea and diarrhea, respectively. But Skovronsky said that side effects usually “disappear as [people] Stay in medicine. “

About 20% of patients arrested treatment for any reason, which is approximately the same as the placebo group.

But Skovronsky said: “It's not that they don't want to be in this medicine.”

He said that interruptions are due to multiple factors apart from side effects. Those may include patients who wanted to stop participating in an essay because they could access another obesity medication or those who did not lose enough weight because they were taking a lower dose of the medication.. He said that “it is no longer a problem” when you take a higher dose.

“Maybe they obtained a new job and their insurance covers [an existing obesity drug] Now and they say: “Why should I risk something not proven when I could be in the injections?” “Skovronsky said, and added that many patients” had no alternative “for treatment when the essay began.

In other cases, people move, change their attention or “something else happens in their life and no longer want to be in a clinical trial,” he added.

In general, Skovronsky said that most patients remain in the medication, and that “the most important thing here is the scale of the opportunity” of people around the world who could benefit from it. More than 100 million adults only in the United States have obesity, according to centers for disease control and prevention data.

“I think this will be an important option,” Skovronsky said. “It may be seen as the most powerful oral medication for the treatment of type 2 diabetes, and certainly type 2 diabetes with obesity, as we saw in this trial.”

He said he hopes that an oral option without food and water restrictions can allow people to start using it before in the course of their illness to stop their progression.

“I think that is one of the important uses here, early intervention,” he said.

Unlike other LPG-1, Eli Lilly's pill is not a peptide medication. It is a small molecule medication that the body absorbs more easily and does not require dietary restrictions such as the Diabetes pill of Novo Nordisk Rybelsus and the oral version of Wegovy, which could enter the market at the end of the year.

Do not hesitate to send any advice, suggestion, stories ideas and data to Annika in [email protected].

If you have lived a great renewal, one thing that you learn is that rehabilitation projects always cost more and take more than you think they will.

Stephen Hemsley helped build Unitedhealth Group In the giant it is today through strategic acquisitions during its first period as CEO. Now, three months after his return to work, he is moving rapidly in an ambitious and strategic change.

While pressing to carry the company's Medicare program and the Optum Health Physicians Unit to profitability, Hemsley has also prioritized the rehabilitation of United's reputation.

The murder in December of the company's insurance head, Brian Thompson, by an accused armed man who seemed to have a history of claims denials, lit a large number of public criticisms in the months after the murder. At the same time, they published reports from a federal criminal investigation into the company's Medicare program fueled investors and weighed on the shares.

“We have embarked on a real cultural change in our relationship with regulators and all external stakeholders … and we intend to proactively committed, constructive and receptive,” Hemsley said about the gain call of the second quarter of the company.

In its first 100 days, it has made three movements to take control of the narrative. In June, he announced that external auditors would analyze the billing and commercial practices of Unitedhealth. In July, the company started a meeting with the Department of Justice and confirmed that its Medicare program is under investigation. Then, last week, UnitedHealth announced a new Public Responsibility Committee, as part of its Board of Directors, which will focus on regulatory concerns and interested parties.

As with any great renewal project, it will have time to rebuild commercial foundations. Rehabilitating the public reputation of the company could be the part that requires even more time and diligence.

Do not hesitate to send any advice, suggestion, stories ideas and data to Bertha in [email protected].