Eli Lilly (LLY) said Thursday that its experimental obesity pill helped patients maintain most of their prior weight loss after switching from injectable treatments in a late-stage trial.

The company said patients moved directly from Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy or Lilly’s own Zepbound injections to the daily pill without a gap in treatment.

Eli Lilly also said it has filed for U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval of the pill, called orforglipron, for obesity. The FDA said in November that it granted the drug a priority review voucher, which could shorten the review timeline.

The phase three trial followed more than 300 adults with obesity who had taken Wegovy or Zepbound for 72 weeks in a previous study. Participants were then randomly assigned to receive either the pill or a placebo for another 52 weeks.

The trial met its main goal by showing that the pill was superior to placebo at maintaining weight loss in patients who had reached a plateau while using injections.

On average, patients who switched from Wegovy to the pill regained about 2 pounds of the weight they had lost by the end of the study. Patients who switched from Zepbound regained an average of about 11 pounds.

Eli Lilly said the overall safety and tolerability of the pill were consistent with earlier studies. The most common side effects were gastrointestinal and were generally mild to moderate.

About 4.8% of patients who switched from Wegovy to the pill stopped treatment because of side effects. Among those who switched from Zepbound, 7.2% discontinued for that reason. Discontinuation rates in placebo groups were similar.

The company said no liver safety issues were observed during the trial. Full results from the study, known as ATTAIN-MAINTAIN, will be presented at a future medical meeting and published in a peer-reviewed journal next year.

Orforglipron targets the GLP-1 hormone to suppress appetite and regulate blood sugar, similar to Wegovy, Ozempic, and Novo Nordisk’s diabetes pill Rybelsus.

Unlike those drugs, Eli Lilly said its pill is not a peptide medication. That allows it to be absorbed more easily and avoids dietary restrictions required with some oral GLP-1 treatments.

Novo Nordisk is also seeking approval for an oral obesity drug, which could reach the market first.