Lilly’s Experimental Diabetes Shot Yields Record Weight Loss (3)

One of Eli Lilly & Co.’s most highly anticipated experimental medicines helped diabetic patients lose more weight than any drug currently on the market, underscoring its potential in the increasingly crowded race for next-generation therapies.

Patients on the highest dose of the drug, called retatrutide, lost 15.3% of their body weight on average using a measure that includes those who discontinued treatment, Lilly said in a statement Thursday. The late-stage results handily beat earlier trials of the company’s diabetes blockbuster Mounjaro.

Taken once weekly, the shot lowered blood sugar by 1.9% over a period of about nine months, Lilly ...