Shares of Club holding Eli Lilly (LLY) rose more than 2% Thursday after trial results for the company's anticipated obesity drug were released. Eli Lilly CEO Dave Ricks expressed confidence in the closely watched phase 3 trial results for the drug, which is called tirzepatide. "It's really exciting," Ricks said in an interview on CNBC's "Squawk Box." "Kind of the best-case scenario we could've hoped for when we designed this study." The trial data was released Thursday morning, alongside the company's better-than-expected first-quarter earnings report. Average weight reductions for trial participants varied based on the dose quantity they received. The average baseline body weight of people in the study was 231 pounds. Patients on the highest dosage of tirzepatide saw a 22.5% average weight reduction, or a loss of 52 pounds. Those on the middle dose reported a 21.4% reduction, or a loss of 49 pounds. Participants on the lowest dose reported a 16% reduction, or 35 pounds lost. That compares to the placebo group's average 2.4% reduction, or 5 pounds lost, according to Eli Lilly. Tirzepatide is "the first drug ever to show 20% plus weight loss — both the middle and the top dose — and we think that will be profound for so many people, 100 million Americans who have obesity," Ricks said. Outside reactions Wall Street had been on the lookout for results from Eli Lilly's Surmount-1 study, which is an important piece to the company's innovation pipeline. Bank of America analyst Geoff Meacham believes tirzepatide as a weight loss treatment could generate more than $6 billion in revenue by 2030 . While that's about double the consensus estimate, it reflects the scale of the opportunity for Eli Lilly. Generally speaking, Thursday's phase 3 data came in better than analysts expected. "These data likely validate Street thinking that [tirzepatide] would become a dominant player in the obesity market," Wells Fargo analysts wrote Thursday morning. They kept their equal weighting rating on the stock. "We see this dataset confirming a very meaningful role for tirzepatide in the emerging obesity market," JPMorgan analysts wrote in a note to clients, while reiterating their overweight rating on Eli Lilly shares. Mizuho Securities analysts also affirmed their buy rating on Eli Lilly, calling the trial results "impressive" in the face of "even recently elevated expectations" . Jim Cramer also found the Surmount-1 results to be encouraging, noting there are tens of millions of people who could benefit from the weight-loss drug. He said on CNBC he was surprised Eli Lilly shares were not moving higher on the news. "I know they had to have some sort of asterisk on their earnings, but that's the one I think people are going to say, when they put pen to paper, 'Wow. Maybe this is the largest drug in history,'" Cramer said. Big picture The pharmaceutical industry has for years been trying develop weight-loss drugs that are both effective and have limited side effects, CNBC PRO reported earlier this month . "We know obesity is such a driver of both long-term bad outcomes for our health, but also healthcare costs," Eli Lilly's Ricks told CNBC. "In the U.S. we spend, the estimate is, a $1 trillion a year treating conditions that manifest from obesity, so it's one of those big areas that we needed to look for solutions, and here now we have great data." Last year, the Food and Drug Administration approved its first new weight-loss drug since 2014 , giving approval to Novo Nordisk 's Wegovy. In late-stage testing, patients who took Wegovy have achieved and sustained an average weight loss of 15% for nearly a year and a half, or 68 weeks. Wall Street liked how Eli Lilly's tirzepatide stacked up to Wegovy based on the phase 3 results. Tirzepatide compares "favorably" to Wegovy, according to Wells Fargo analysts. Morgan Stanley said the weight-loss drug "looks competitive" with Wegovy. Lilly's study Tirzepatide was initially studied to treat type 2 diabetes before Eli Lilly later broadened its potential use to include weight loss. The drug could receive FDA approval as a diabetes treatment later this year. However, additional clinical research is needed before Eli Lilly can ask regulators to sign off on tirzepatide as a weight-loss treatment. The results released Thursday morning are initial phase 3 results. Data from a larger pool of participants are expected next year. This means that while tirzepatide shows promise as an obesity treatment, it's not necessarily going to be on the market and generating sales imminently. There's more work to be done before it goes to the FDA for review. Ricks told CNBC the drugmaker plans to increase research and development spending "a little bit to invest behind some of the results we're talking about today." Make no mistake, this is still a noteworthy development for investors. Eli Lilly's innovation pipeline is a key reason why the Club is invested in the company , and now we see clear indications that tirzepatide offers real promise as a potential weight-loss treatment. (Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust is long LLY. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . 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