Eli Lilly (LLY) spokesperson confirmed that it will allow other patients to apply for early access to retatrutide, Stat News reports

Expanded access programmes sit between trial and approval: they signal a sponsor is fielding demand outside enrolment and has supply and safety confidence sufficient to let regulators permit compassionate use, but they have historically carried no read-through to approval timing or label breadth. The usual sequence is application gating through physicians, narrow eligibility criteria, and no meaningful patient volumes, so the revenue effect is nil; what matters commercially is that the drug remains investigational and the pivotal data are still the gating event. For a metabolic asset in a class where demand has repeatedly outrun manufacturing, early access requests are also a loose proxy for prescriber and patient appetite ahead of launch. The items worth watching are the eligibility terms, any supply commentary attached, and whether management addresses the programme alongside trial readouts or filing plans. Nothing in an access announcement of this kind changes the regulatory path on its own.