Astra Obesity Pill Delivers 11.8% Weight Loss in Mid-Stage Trial

AstraZeneca Plc’s experimental obesity pill helped patients lose as much as 11.8% of their body weight in a mid-stage trial, as the British drugmaker pushes into the surging market for weight-loss combination drugs.

Patients taking Astra’s GLP-1 pill elecoglipron, which it licensed from Chinese biotech Eccogene Inc., did not reach the 14.7% level shown by rival Eli Lilly & Co.’s Foundayo pill in the US company’s mid-stage trials. Novo Nordisk A/S’s Wegovy pill has proven to be more effective than Lilly’s in late-stage studies.

Still, the performance is likely to be sufficient to position it ...