Lilly’s GLP-1 Pill Just Beat Oral Ozempic – It Still Won’t Reverse Diabetes

The race for the first true GLP-1 pill just ended — and it wasn’t even close. Eli Lilly‘s once-daily oral GLP-1,
orforglipron, just published head-to-head Phase 3 data showing it beat oral semaglutide (the pill form of
Ozempic) on both A1c and weight loss. The results dropped this week in The Lancet, with a separate Phase 3
study in The New England Journal of Medicine.

What Just Happened

The headline trial is ACHIEVE-3, published in The Lancet, a 52-week, randomized, open-label Phase 3 study of 1,600+ adults with Type 2 diabetes inadequately controlled on metformin. Patients were randomized to either orforglipron (12 mg or 36 mg) or oral semaglutide (7 mg or 14 mg), once daily. The results Lilly is shouting from the rooftop:

  • A1c reduction: Orforglipron 36 mg cut HbA1c by 2.2 percentage points vs. 1.4% with oral semaglutide 14 mg.
  • Weight loss: Orforglipron 36 mg dropped body weight 9.2% (≈19.7 lb) vs. 5.3% (≈11 lb) with oral semaglutide — a 73.6% greater relative weight loss.
  • Cardiometabolic gains: Clinically meaningful improvements in non-HDL cholesterol, triglycerides, systolic blood pressure, and VLDL cholesterol.
  • Dosing edge: Orforglipron is a non-peptide small molecule — no food or water restrictions, easier manufacturing, and no refrigeration.

A second Phase 3 trial — ACHIEVE-1 — was published in The New England Journal of Medicine in adults with early Type 2 diabetes on diet and exercise alone. Same story: significant A1c reduction, meaningful weight loss, GLP-1-class safety profile. Side effects (nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, decreased appetite) are consistent with the GLP-1 class. The Lancet paper did flag higher GI-related discontinuation rates and a slightly larger bump in pulse rate versus oral semaglutide.

The Question Nobody’s Asking

Here’s what every headline about the new GLP-1 pill is leaving out: this drug still manages diabetes. It does
not reverse it.

Orforglipron works the same way every GLP-1 does — by mimicking an incretin gut hormone that tells your pancreas to make more insulin, slows your stomach emptying, and quiets your hunger signals. You take it every day. When you stop, the A1c comes back. The weight comes back. The medication never addresses why your blood sugar was dysregulated in the first place — it overrides the symptom while the underlying insulin resistance keeps running the show.

That’s not a flaw. That’s pharmacology. Every GLP-1 on the market — injectable or oral — is a lifelong lease on disease management, not a deed to remission.

So the real question for the 38 million Americans living with Type 2 diabetes isn’t “which GLP-1 pill should I take?” It’s “why am I still diabetic in the first place, and what’s actually required to reverse it?“

What Reversal Actually Looks Like

At Diabetes Reversal Group, we measure reversal by a single, unblinking standard: A1c below 6.4% — off
every diabetes medication — sustained. Not “controlled.” Not “managed.” Reversed.

Our patients hit an average completion A1c of 5.7% — well below the diabetic threshold — in an average of 4.5 months. The mechanism isn’t a molecule. It’s a system: a patented nutrition protocol (240 recipes, 7-day meal plans, telemedicine delivery, mobile app coaching) that reverses the underlying insulin resistance at the root. The world’s only patented protocol for Type 2 diabetes reversal (U.S. patent granted September 2020), built on 16 years of clinical use with 10,000+ patients.

You can read patient outcomes — A1cs before and after, medications discontinued, time to reversal here.

The Bottom Line

A pill that lowers A1c is a real win for patients who need medication. A system that reverses the disease is a different game entirely — one the pharmaceutical pipeline cannot build.

If you’re on metformin, a GLP-1, or insulin, and you’ve been told you’ll be on it for life, you owe it to yourself to look at what’s actually possible. Watch our free webinar — the same presentation our medical team uses with new patients here. No pitch. Just the science, the data, and how to know if you’re a candidate.

By:
Dr. Jeffrey Hockings
Co-Founder/CEO
Diabetes Reversal Group


Kristine Burke, MD
Chief Medical Officer
Diabetes Reversal Group


The only patented system in the world proven to reverse Type 2 Diabetes