On Thursday, March 28, 2024, Eli Lilly and Company's Zepbound injection pen was installed in Brooklyn, New York, USA.
Shelby Knowles | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Eli Lilly and Company Popular weight-loss drug reduces risk of type 2 diabetes in obese or overweight adults by 94% prediabetes compared with placebo, according to preliminary results from a long-term study released Tuesday.
Late-stage trials of the company's weight-loss injectable Zepbound and tezeparatide, the active ingredient in diabetes drug Mounjaro, also found that patients experienced sustained weight loss over about three years of treatment. Adults taking the highest weekly dose of the drug lost an average of 22.9% of their weight after 176 weeks, while those taking a placebo lost 2.1%.
The results suggest that Eli Lilly's treatment can meaningfully delay a potential diagnosis in patients with prediabetes, or patients whose blood sugar levels are higher than normal but not high enough to be classified as type 2 diabetes.
more than one third Americans have prediabetes, according to new government data from health experts Can be reversed through lifestyle changes Such as diet and exercise. overweight or obese people Higher risk of developing prediabetes.
New data also show potential long-term health benefits from taking a popular class of obesity and diabetes drugs called GLP-1, which mimic hormones produced in the gut to suppress appetite and regulate blood sugar. As Eli Lilly's Zepbound and Mounjaro and rival injections Novo Nordisk Over the past two years, as the drug's popularity has soared, the companies have raced to research other clinical uses for their drugs.
“Obesity is a chronic disease that puts nearly 900 million adults worldwide at increased risk for other complications such as type 2 diabetes,” Dr. Jeff Emmick, senior vice president of product development at Eli Lilly, said in a statement. “These data Reinforces the potential clinical benefit of long-term treatment in patients with obesity and prediabetes.”
Eli Lilly tested tezeparatide in more than 1,000 adults for 176 weeks in a phase 3 trial, after which patients stopped treatment for 17 weeks. According to the company, this is the longest completed study of the drug to date.
The drugmaker will submit the latest results to a peer-reviewed journal and present them at a conference Upcoming medical conferences November. Released by Eli Lilly and Company 72 weeks weight loss results Back in 2022, the trial, called SUMOUNT-1, looked at a larger group of patients from the same trial.
Patients in the trial started to gain weight and were at increased risk of progression to diabetes within 17 weeks of stopping taking tezeparatide. But according to the latest Phase 3 results, these participants still had an 88% reduction in the risk of developing diabetes compared with placebo.
According to Eli Lilly, safety data for tezepatide during the trial were consistent with previous studies of the drug. The most common side effects are gastrointestinal effects such as diarrhea, nausea, constipation, and vomiting, which are generally mild to moderate in severity.
Eli Lilly's Zepbound works by mimicking two naturally occurring gut hormones called GLP-1 and GIP.
GLP helps reduce food intake and appetite. GIP also suppresses appetite and may also improve the way the body breaks down sugar and fat.