Eli Lilly (LLY) said Thursday that its investigational obesity pill helped diabetes patients achieve glucose control and weight loss, sending the pharmaceutical company's shares soaring intraday.

In a late-stage trial, Lilly's experimental once-daily pill, orforglipron, met the primary endpoint of delivering a higher reduction in average blood sugar, or A1C, levels than placebo at 40 weeks. Orforglipron lowered A1C by an average of 1.3% to 1.6% across doses.

In a key secondary endpoint, more than 65% of participants taking the highest dose of orforglipron achieved an A1C less than or equal to 6.5%, which is the American Diabetes Association's defined threshold for diabetes. Additionally, patients using orforglipron reduced weight by an average of 4.7% at the lowest dose to 7.9% at the highest.

Lilly's shares rallied 13% in Thursday trade.

"Achieve-1 is the first of seven phase 3 studies examining the safety and efficacy of orforglipron across people with diabetes and obesity," Chief Executive David Ricks said in a statement. "We are pleased to see that our latest incretin medicine meets our expectations for safety and tolerability, glucose control and weight loss, and we look forward to additional data readouts later this year."

Truist Securities said that the data is in line with expectations. The brokerage expects orforglipron's peak sales at about $14.7 billion versus a consensus estimate that it put at $16.8 billion.

Orforglipron's safety profile was consistent with the established glucagon-like peptide-1 class, Lilly said. "The most commonly reported adverse events were gastrointestinal-related and generally mild to moderate in severity," according to the company.

Treatment discontinuation rates due to adverse events were 6% for the 3 mg dose, 4% for 12 mg and 8% at the highest 36 mg dose.

Lilly expects to seek global regulatory approvals for orforglipron as a weight management treatment by the end of this year and as a type 2 diabetes treatment in 2026.