Eli Lilly Weight-Loss Drug Makes Cardio Advance. More Bad News for Novo Nordisk.

Mounjaro was associated with a 16% lower death rate compared with Trulicity, an older version of the diabetes treatment. (George Frey/Bloomberg)

Eli Lilly’s best-selling diabetes drug Mounjaro lowered the risk of heart attacks and stroke in a late-stage trial, the company said early Thursday, in a sign it might be edging closer to getting the benefit included on its label.

That could be a blow to Novo Nordisk, which sells Wegovy, a similar medicine already approved to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke in obese and overweight patients.

Novo says it’s not concerned. A spokesperson told Barron’s that its drug, sold under the brand names Ozempic and Wegovy, still has the broadest proven outcome in its class.

The new trial compared Lilly’s Mounjaro to and older Lilly diabetes drug called Trulicity. The study found a 16% lower death rate in patients on Mounjaro compared to patients on Trulicity, Lilly said. The risk of cardiovascular death, heart attack, or stroke was 8% lower for patients on Mounjaro than for patients on Trulicity.

That was good enough for Mounjaro to surpass the preset statistical bar of non-inferiority against Trulicity, though it missed the higher statistical bar of superiority.

The study included more than 13,000 patients with Type 2 diabetes and heart disease across 30 countries and lasted about four and a half years, Lilly said. It also showed improvements on patients’ blood sugar, weight and kidney function compared with Trulicity.

“Ozempic remains best in class with 26% reduction in heart attack, stroke and CV [cardiovascular] death in people with type 2 diabetes and only Wegovy has a proven 20% reduction in heart attack, stroke and CV death in people with obesity,” Novo told Barron’s.

Lilly and Novo are the only companies with weight-loss medicines approved by the Food and Drug Administration on the U.S. market.

Both Lilly and Novo stocks are down over the past 12 months as investors have pared back sky-high expectations of the size of the weight-loss drugs market. Novo shares, however, have fared worse.

Lilly stock traded largely flat at $760.74 in early trading Thursday. Novo’s American depository receipts were down 2.1% to $48.97.

Lilly stock briefly jumped and Novo shares dipped in premarket trading in the minutes after the study was released early Thursday, but returned to pre-announcement levels shortly after.

Write to Elsa Ohlen at elsa.ohlen@barrons.com