Astra Obesity Pill Delivers Enough Weight Loss to Be ‘Credible’

AstraZeneca Plc’s obesity pill helped patients lose as much as 11.8% of their body weight in a study that puts it roughly on track to compete with existing products. The UK drugmaker is now combining the drug with other treatments to stand out in an increasingly crowded market.

Patients taking Astra’s experimental GLP-1 elecoglipron didn’t shed as much weight as volunteers in separate trials of rival Eli Lilly & Co.’s Foundayo pill, but analysts said the performance is sufficient to position it as a competitor.

“Eleco could be a credible alternative to Foundayo,” James Gordon and colleagues at ...