A new “miracle” weight loss drug supposedly better than Wegovy looks set to hit the UK and US.
It was found that overweight people who took tirzepatide weekly and led a healthier lifestyle lost an average of 34 pounds (15.6 kg) in 72 weeks. This was equivalent to about 16% of their body weight.
By comparison, patients who followed only diet and exercise lost only 3.3% of their body weight.
And Eli Lilly and Co., the injection company, will now push for the drug to be approved as a weight loss drug in the United States. A similar application will be introduced in the UK later this year, according to MailOnline.
The results of a large study of tirzepatide also show that it is much more effective than its main competitor, Wegovy, which is produced by the Danish company Novo Nordisk, as studies show that it can help people lose 12 to 15% of their body weight.
Both drugs work in the same way, suppressing appetite with a synthetic hormone to trick the body into thinking it’s already full.
But tirzepatide, called Mounjaro, offered to patients with type 2 diabetes in the US, differs from Wegovy in that it mimics the action of two hormones rather than one.
Jeff Emick, Lilly’s vice president of product development, said the weight loss seen in the latest trial, which included 938 people, “has not been previously achieved in the phase 3 trials of obesity or overweight and type 2 diabetes.”
Previous results have shown that this is called “King Kong” for weight loss.
Lilly reported that more than 86% of people who took the 15mg dose achieved at least 5% weight loss.
This compares with 30.5% of placebo patients during the 72-week study period.
Trial participants who were given a dose of less than 10 mg lost, on average, more than 13 percent in weight, or about 30 pounds (14 kg). And almost 82% lost at least 5% of their weight.
As with other doses for weight loss, patients are given an initial dose of 2.5 mg once a week. It is then increased every four weeks until the target dose is reached.
Lilly said it expects a decision from US regulators by the end of 2023 and told MailOnline that an application will be made to UK counterparts this year.
The latest study also published data on the reported side effects of tirzepatide.
Among them, about one in five participants experienced nausea and diarrhea, and about one in ten reported vomiting or diarrhea.
According to Lilly, side effects were most often reported during the overdose period. Only about 4% and 7.5% of participants in the 10mg and 15mg groups, respectively, stopped due to side effects.
In the future, a direct trial is planned to compare tirzepatide and semaglutide, the main ingredient in Wegovy.
Trials of semaglutide reported that users lost about 15% of their body weight within 16 months.
Source: Daily Mail
