Diabetes drug could be weight-loss miracle: patients shed up to 21 per cent of their body weight in trial of tirzepatide
- People who took part in a trial of a newly approved drug for diabetes also lost weight; obese people without diabetes who took it shed up to 27kg
- Tirzepatide is expected to win US Federal Drug Administration approval as a weight-loss drug, joining another diabetic/weight management drug, semaglutide
A drug recently approved to treat type 2 diabetes is also extremely effective at reducing obesity, according to a new study.
The drug, tirzepatide, works on two naturally occurring hormones that help control blood sugar and are involved in sending fullness signals from the gut to the brain.
Researchers noticed that people who took the drug for their diabetes also lost weight. The new trial focused on people who have obesity without diabetes – and found even more weight loss.
Over the 72-week trial, those taking the highest of three studied doses lost as much as 21 per cent of their body weight – from 22kg to 27kg (50 to 60 pounds) in some cases.
Nothing has provided that kind of weight loss except surgery, said Dr Robert Gabbay, chief scientific and medical officer for the American Diabetes Association. The full study was presented at the ADA’s annual convention in New Orleans this month and simultaneously published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Another obesity treatment approved last year called semaglutide, from Novo Nordisk – also developed originally to treat diabetes – provides an average weight loss of up to about 15 per cent. Previous generations of diet drugs cut only about 5 per cent of weight and many had prohibitive side effects.