Why Eli Lilly is suddenly pulling ahead in the GLP-1 weight-loss race

It’s a good day to be the pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly.

This morning, the company unveiled its latest innovation in the weight-loss drug wars: the KwikPen. Per a press release , the KwikPen contains a months-worth of Zepbound, Eli Lilly’s GLP-1 designed to combat obesity, and it’s designed to make taking the medicine more convenient. Alongside the announcement of this new innovation, Eli Lilly’s main competitor, Novo Nordisk, dropped the news that its experimental drug, CagriSema, perfomed worse for patient weight loss in a head-to-head trial against Eli Lilly’s proprietary drug, tirzepatide.

A November study from the health policy non-profit KFF found that about one in eight American adults were using a GLP-1 for weight loss or to treat a chronic condition. And as the weight-loss drug market soars, its two most dominant players—Eli Lilly and competitor Novo Nordisk, the maker of Ozempic—are battling it out to offer the most convenient, most effective, and least expensive iterations of their respective drugs. 

Right now, Eli Lilly appears to be the leader in the GLP-1 race amidst multiple difficult headwinds for Novo Nordisk. As of this writing, Novo Nordisk stock is down nearly 16% since market open, while Eli Lilly is up by nearly 5%. 

Weight-loss drugs take new, more convenient forms

Over the past several months, both Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk have invested in novel drug formats to retain customers and reach new audiences. 

Back in December, Novo Nordisk received FDA approval for a first-of-its-kind, once-daily pill for weight loss. The pill, which is an oral form of Novo Nordisk’s GLP-1 Wegovy, offers a less invasive way for users to administer weight-loss drugs, which are typically delivered via an injector. Eli Lilly is currently in the testing phases of its own oral GLP-1, but it does not yet offer anything similar to the Wegovy pill. 

In the meantime, the KwikPen will presumably make taking Zepbound a bit easier for Eli Lilly’s customer base. Currently, patients use a separate autoinjector for each of their weekly doses of the drug. Each KwikPen, by contrast, comes pre-loaded with four doses, meaning one pen lasts for a full month. It’s available in six strengths, ranging from 2.5 mg to 15 mg. For cash-paying patients, the KwikPen will be available via Eli Lilly’s direct-to-consumer website, LillyDirect.

Eli Lilly pulls ahead

Eli Lilly may be lagging behind Novo Nordisk in GLP-1 pill design, but it’s notched several more significant wins against its top competitor in recent months.

Novo Nordisk has been fighting an uphill battle as the weight-loss drug market becomes more crowded, including by the proliferation of compounded (aka copycat) versions of Ozempic and Mounjaro made by smaller manufacturers.

In its fourth quarter report, released in early February, Novo Nordisk announced strong revenue of $12.34 billion, but warned that its sales and profit growth would decline by between 5% and 13% in 2026 amidst growing competition and lower U.S. prices. These same struggles have caused the company’s stock price to plummet by more than 55% year-over-year.

Meanwhile, Eli Lilly has been buoyed by the major success of Zepbound since its 2023 debut, as customers opt for the medicine given its greater effectiveness for weight loss than Ozempic. In its February fourth quarter report, Eli Lilly boasted revenue of $19.3 billion and guided for its sales to grow by a whopping 25% in 2026. The company’s stock has risen by more than 25% year-over-year.

Now, Novo Nordisk is taking yet another blow, as a Feburary 23 report showed that its new experimental drug CagriSema could not demonstrate non-inferiority against Eli Lilly’s tirzepatide. Based on Novo Nordisk’s report, “if all people adhered to treatment, people treated with CagriSema 2.4 mg/2.4 mg achieved a weight loss of 23.0% after 84 weeks compared to 25.5% with tirzepatide 15 mg.”

As GLP-1 usage continues to become more mainstream, pharmaceutical giants will be fighting an increasingly competitive battle for market share.

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