Eli Lilly (LLY) became the latest drug maker to announce a potential breakthrough in weight-loss treatment, saying that pa🍰tients in a phase 2 trial of its experimental diabetes and obesity drug recorded a significant drop in weight.

The company reported the once-weekly injectable treatment retatrutide helped participants with diabetes or were overweight without diabetes to lose an average of 17.5% (or 41.2 pounds) at 24 weeks, and 24.2% (or 57.8 pounds) at 48 weeks. That's more than other weight loss drugs like Novo Nordisk's Ozempic, which helped patients lose an average of 15%.

Dr. Ania Jastreboff, a weight management sp🅷ecialist at the Yale School of Medicine and lead author of the study, noted that the patients had not reached their weight plateau before the study, and “it appears that full weight reduction efficacy was not yet attained.” She added that longer, phase 3 trials will allow for a more comprehensive evaluation of the efficacy of retatrutide.

Lilly is among several pharmaceutical firms with promising treatments for the goal of finding safe and effective drugs to help people lose weight. Jastre༺boff said that “we are now in the midst of a rapidly expanding therapeutic landscape of potential highly effective treatment options for individuals with obes🌳ity.”

Eli Lilly shares initially rose to a 52-week high following the news, but pulled back and were up aꦺbout 1% at noon Eastern Time.