Seek­ing a come-from-be­hind win, Eli Lil­ly lands big ap­proval for next-gen di­a­betes drug

Eli Lil­ly has clinched a key OK for tirzepatide, draw­ing the cur­tain on what it hopes will be a ma­jor car­diometa­bol­ic fran­chise and a se­ri­ous ri­val to a megablock­buster from No­vo Nordisk.

With the FDA ap­proval, Lil­ly will start mar­ket­ing tirzepatide in­jec­tion as Moun­jaro to adults with Type 2 di­a­betes, the first such treat­ment that’s al­so a dual GIP/GLP-1 re­cep­tor ag­o­nist.

But the la­bel al­so comes with a black box warn­ing re­gard­ing thy­roid C-cell tu­mors, and the drug is con­traindi­cat­ed in pa­tients with a per­son­al or fam­i­ly his­to­ry of medullary thy­roid car­ci­no­ma or in pa­tients with mul­ti­ple en­docrine neo­pla­sia syn­drome type 2.

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