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The Race Is on for the Next Weight Loss Drug
By Najla Zaidi | 14 Jul, 2025
With dozens of drugs in development, semaglutide and tirzepatide may only be the beginning of next-generation diabetes and weight loss treatments.
After the incredible success of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic, pharmaceutical companies are in a heated race to get their slice of a forecasted $100 billion dollar pie. Several biotech companies are pursuing new therapies, with an emphasis on enhancing efficacy, improving administration, and minimizing side effects compared to existing options like Wegovy and Zepbound.
"Anti-obesity medications are emerging at an astonishing pace," Dr. Christopher McGowan, a gastroenterologist and obesity medicine specialist, said. "Forthcoming medications take the blockbuster GLP-1 medications and up the ante."
While GLP-1 drugs have opened new avenues in healthcare, they have some downsides. GLP-1s need to be injected once a week for effects to last, they must be kept refrigerated, cause unpleasant side effects like nausea, and manufacturers have struggled to keep up with demand. The cost is also prohibitive at approximately $1,000.00 per month which isn't covered b y most insurance plans.
The next breakthrough drug may not be available until 2027, but the five leading candidates in production give us a snapshot of what we can expect in the near future.
Eli Lilly
The American pharma giant is developing a stronger weight-loss injection, Retatrutide, which, in a small clinical trial, helped patients lose 17% of their weight in 24 weeks. At 48 weeks, participants had lost an average of 24% of their body weight, or about 58 pounds, which is more than any other drug on the market.
Retatrutide is a next-gen medication that acts on three different hormones, earning it the nickname Triple-G. The drug targets the receptors for GLP-1, GIP, and glucagon, the latter of which can help break down fat stores.
“We have not seen results like this before in a trial of less than one-year duration with an anti-obesity medication,” said Ania Jastreboff, an endocrinologist and weight specialist at the Yale School of Medicine.
Eli Lilly is also developing Orforglipron, a small-molecule weight-loss and diabetics’ pill. The drug is closest to approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and is currently in a phase 3 trial where its results will be published this year. Earlier trials found that it helped users lose an average of nearly 15% of weight after 36 weeks.
Orforglipron “doesn’t have any restrictions in terms of food intake or the time you take it,” says Julio Rosenstock, MD, the director of Velocity Clinical Research, and a professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. Though the health benefits don’t exceed those of currently available drugs, experts anticipate that many patients will strongly prefer to take a daily pill than a weekly injection. Lilly hopes to get Orforglipron on the market by 2026.
Viking Therapeutics
Research suggests VK2735, from California-based Viking Therapeutics, could work faster than competitors like semaglutide and tirzepatide. VK2735 acts on both GLP-1 and GIP like tirzepatide, the active ingredient in Mounjaro and Zepbound and is available in both injection and pill form.
A mid-stage trial found patients on VK2735 lost an average of 14.7% of their body weight which is about 32 pounds by 13 weeks. The results are comparable to what has been seen in trials of semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy) after 68 weeks. This implies similar weight loss but in a fraction of the time.
Viking Therapeutics recently announced it would meet with the FDA about Phase II for VK2735 injections before 2025. The oral form of VK2735 is expected to enter Phase II trials by the end of this year, as well.
Novo Nordisk
The Danish pharma giant is developing a successor to its popular Ozempic medication. CagriSema is a once-weekly injection that combines semaglutide with a compound targeting another hormone, cagrilintide. This combination is expected to help people lose significantly more weight than semaglutide alone, Novo Nordisk says.
Cagrilintide works by mimicking the effects of a naturally occurring hormone which regulates appetite and digestion and lowers blood sugar. CagriSema adds it to the already-popular drug semaglutide, which itself helps manage hunger and blood sugar levels.
One early study found patients lost more weight on CagriSema, about 15% weight loss over 32 weeks, than either semaglutide or cagrilintide alone. Phase III clinical trials for CagriSema are ongoing and slated to last until late 2025. The drug could be available in 2026.
Amgen
The multinational biopharmaceutical company based in California is working on a longer lasting monthly shot. MariTide only needs to be injected once a month or even less frequently in comparison to the once-weekly requirement for semaglutide and tirzepatide.
MariTide is like Mounjaro and Zepbound because it mimics GLP-1 and GIP hormones. The difference is that MariTide reduces GIP receptor activity. Amgen says this makes it easier for the body to burn fat. MariTide, helped patients living with obesity or who are overweight lose an average of 20% of their weight in a 52 week trial.
Data from Phase II trials is expected later this year, and planning is underway for Phase III trials.
Having more drugs on the market would mean more choices for patient and in turn more profits for the companies selling them.
“And beyond GLP-1, there are likely new mechanisms involved in hunger and appetite that scientists have yet to uncover yet,” said Daniel Drucker, professor of medicine at the University of Toronto, who co-discovered GLP-1 in the 1980s. “With this flurry of activity, we’re probably going to see some very exciting new medicines that could be even better than the ones we have now.”
The next breakthrough drug may not be available until 2027, but the five leading candidates in production give us a snapshot of what we can expect in the near future.
Weight loss drugs are getting cheaper and more efficient.
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