An Eli Lilly drug candidate designed to hit three metabolic targets led patients to lose an average of 28.7% of their body weight in a late-stage clinical trial, setting a new high mark in the competitive chase to develop next-generation obesity medications.

But the preliminary Phase 3 results also show high rates of patients discontinuing treatment, which will be something to watch in the coming year for this weekly injectable medication, retatrutide. The data reported Thursday are the first from a broad clinical trial program expected to yield seven additional Phase 3 trial readouts in 2026.

Lilly became a dominant player in obesity drugs with Zepbound, a weekly injectable medication whose main component is a peptide engineered to bind to and activate two gut receptors, GLP-1 and GI

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