Speaking at The New York Times’s DealBook Summit, Eli Lilly’s chief executive and an obesity medicine specialist discussed the potential for wildly popular weight-loss drugs to be used to treat many other conditions.

Zepbound, the new GLP-1 weight-loss drug from Eli Lilly & Co., has outperformed its main competitor, Wegovy, in a clinical trial funded by Lilly.

Eli Lilly & Co. said its weight-loss drug Zepbound outperformed rival Novo Nordisk A/S’s Wegovy in the first head-to-head trial of the two blockbusters. In the study sponsored by Lilly, those on Zepbound lost an average of about 50 pounds over 72 weeks.

People who took Zepbound, Eli Lilly’s weight loss drug, shed more pounds than those on Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy in a clinical trial, Lilly said in a release Wednesday.

Shares of Eli Lilly climbed early Wednesday after the drugmaker detailed a study showing that its blockbuster weight-loss drug Zepbound helped patients shed more pounds than Wegovy from rival Novo Nor

New data indicating Eli Lilly’s obesity shot Zepbound works better than Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy could add fuel to Lilly’s new efforts to market the drug as shortages ease.Recent months have brought new questions about whether the sky-high expectations for Zepbound’s sales—which have sent Lilly’s share price up more than 230% over the past three years—may be overly optimistic.

Eli Lilly says new research shows its medication Zepbound helped patients shed more weight over a shorter period of time than Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy.