ADA2025: Orforglipron, Amycretin, and a Fire Hose of New Drugs

We are only halfway through ADA2025 in Chicago and already the flood of information about new drugs for obesity like orforglipron, amycretin, and a host of others leaves us feeling like we have been sprayed down by a fire hose.

Much more will be coming at us in the next two days.

Orforglipron and Other Small Oral Molecules

Bright and early Saturday, we knew to expect new data on orforglipron. This is a GLP-1 agonist Lilly is developing for oral administration. It is not a peptide (a large molecular chain of amino acids), so it is easier and cheaper to make than drugs like semaglutide and tirzepatide. Being a smaller molecule, it is much more suitable for administration as a tablet, rather than an injection.

We found no disappointment. The study appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine at the same time Julio Rosenstock presented it at the meeting. This was a pivotal phase 3 study of 559 persons with type 2 diabetes and an average BMI of 33. The primary goal of the study was to prove the drug is effective for controlling glucose and it succeeded. It appears to offer effectiveness that is comparable to semaglutide (Ozempic). It also produced weight loss of four to eight percent. This again was similar to results with semaglutide in diabetes patients.

But what we did not expect to learn is that landscape is quickly filling up with other small molecules targeting GLP-1 and suitable for oral administration. Tina Vilsbøll described a dozen that are already in clinical development and many, many more that are at the preclinical stage. This is encouraging news.

Amycretin

Also on the subject of new drugs for obesity, Novo Nordisk published results in Lancet from early phase studies with amycretin. This is a drug that can be given either orally or by injection and it targets both GLP-1 and amylin receptors. So it will work differently from anything else that is currently approved in the U.S.

The results of this study in persons with overweight and obesity was weight loss of up to 24%. Novo regarded them to be strong enough to move straight into pivotal phase 3 studies by early next year. This also raises the possibility that amycretin will overshadow CagriSema. Novo had high hopes for that combination drug, but clinical results – due to be presented this morning at the meeting – have been underwhelming to many observers.

We shall see. But it is clear enough already at ADA2025, from the data on orforglipron and other new drugs, that the pipeline of new drugs for obesity is full to overflowing.

Click here for the orforglipron study in NEJM, here for the amycretin study in Lancet. For free access to further reporting from the New York Times, click here.

The Fire Hose at ADA2025, photograph by Ted Kyle / ConscienHealth

Subscribe by email to follow the accumulating evidence and observations that shape our view of health, obesity, and policy.

June 22, 2025