Eli Lilly's Next Weight-Loss Shot Beats Its Own Best-Seller by 10 Points, and Also by a Lot More Nausea
EloraTZP beat Zepbound on weight loss and blood sugar in a Phase 2b trial, but dropout rates nearly tripled.
Eli Lilly is already testing what comes after Zepbound. EloraTZP, a combination of the amylin receptor agonist eloralintide and Zepbound's own tirzepatide, posted 23.3% average weight loss (54.1 pounds) at its highest dose in a Phase 2b trial, compared with 14.8% (34.4 pounds) for tirzepatide alone. Lower-dose combinations landed between 13.2% and 19.9%, and every dose tested beat tirzepatide monotherapy on both weight loss and blood sugar control, with the top combination cutting A1C by 2.9% versus 2.4%.
The catch sits in the discontinuation numbers. Gastrointestinal side effects showed up more often in the combination arms, and dropout rates ranged from 10.8% to 27.0% for EloraTZP against just 2.9% for tirzepatide alone, meaning Lilly's bigger results came with meaningfully more people quitting the trial. Kenneth Custer, who oversees Lilly's cardiometabolic health business, called the drug "our next frontier, pairing a selective amylin receptor agonist with tirzepatide," and the company is moving to co-formulated Phase 3 studies with an adjusted dose-escalation schedule by the end of 2026.
The timing is no accident. Novo Nordisk has spent the past several weeks touting its own CagriSema data against Zepbound, and Lilly's answer is essentially: wait for the sequel. Whether a drug with triple the dropout rate of its predecessor can out-market its own side effects is the question Lilly's Phase 3 trials will have to answer alongside the efficacy data.
Source: Eli Lilly and Company
Kyle Duford, Founder & Editor, BRNDWIRE. More from Kyle →
