Lilly’s Experimental Obesity Pill Holds Up to Scrutiny in Trial

Eli Lilly & Co.’s experimental weight-loss pill helped patients shed pounds without serious side effects in a clinical trial, burnishing the drug’s blockbuster potential in the company’s competition with Novo Nordisk A/S.

The highest dose helped patients with type 2 diabetes lose 7.6% of their body weight, during the 40-week study, according to data presented Saturday at the American Diabetes Association conference in Chicago. The results, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found no signs of liver damage in patients on the drug, easing concerns that Lilly’s medicine might run into side effects that derailed earlier ...