Just not enough sick people

Eli Lilly considers testing weight-loss drugs on people who are not overweight

Eli Lilly is considering testing its blockbuster weight-loss drugs in people who are not overweight but are at risk of weight gain, in an early sign that the drugmaker may look to broaden the rollout of the medications beyond obese patients.

Dave Ricks, Eli Lilly’s chief executive, told the Financial Times that the drugmaker behind Mounjaro and Zepbound was drawing up plans to study its anti-obesity medications among people with a body mass index (BMI) that does not classify as overweight.

He said: “Maybe the cut-off point of [a BMI of] 27 we use in northern Europe and the US for entry into the studies isn’t appropriate. Maybe we should use [a BMI of] 25. Long term, should we look at health maintenance? Maybe we will.”

This is the standard pharma playbook. You have to treat the well as the pool of sick people is not large enough for quarterly earnings reports. Interesting to see if they will fund the studies with hard endpoints (i.e death) over several decades — when the patents have long expired. Of course not.