YAHOO NEWS – A drug approved to treat Type 2 diabetes is extremely effective at reducing obesity, according to a new study.
The drug, called 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 lost weight. The new trial focused on people who have obesity without diabetes and found even more weight loss.
Those taking the highest of three studied doses lost as much as 21% of their body weight – 50-60 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 Saturday at the ADA’s annual convention in New Orleans and simultaneously published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
Another obesity treatment approved last year called semaglutide, from Novo Nordisk, provides an average of up to about 15% weight loss. Previous generations of diet drugs cut only about 5% of weight and many carried prohibitive side effects.
“We’ve not had tools like this,” Gabbay said. “I think it’s really exciting.”
For most of the trial participants, side effects from tirzepatide were not serious, said Jeff Emmick, vice president of product development for the diabetes division of drug giant Lilly, which makes the drug.
About 15% of participants who received the active drug dropped out of the 72-week trial, about a third because of gastrointestinal side effects. Twenty-six percent of trial volunteers who received a placebo dropped out. Emmick said he thinks they may have been frustrated by their lack of weight loss.
On May 13, the Food and Drug Administration approved tirzepatide, under the trade name Mounjaro, for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes.
Tirzepatide is not available for weight loss, but Lilly hopes to have an updated timeline from the FDA this year … READ MORE.
