The miracle weight loss remedy is being researched due to concerns that it may increase the risk of cancer.
And MailOnline reported that health officials have called for research to track any possible link to thyroid and pancreatic cancer.
Data from this week’s study showed that overweight people taking tirzepatide lost an average of 34.4 pounds (15.6 kg) after 72 weeks. And they all began to lead a healthier lifestyle, taking a dose once a week.
The company that makes the dose dubbed the “King Kong” of weight loss drugs wants it approved as a specific weight loss drug in both the US and the UK.
Munjaro, the branded version of the potent ingredient, has already overcome all regulatory hurdles for treating type 2 diabetes.
The treatment works once a week, mimicking the action of some natural appetite-suppressing hormones. This is the last drug of its kind to hit the market since Wegovy. But like other medicines, it is also under scrutiny by European health officials.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said that studies in rodents have shown that the synthetic hormones found in tirzepatide may increase the risk of developing medullary thyroid cancer (MTC).
Thus, he ruled that a controlled study of patients taking the drug should be conducted to investigate the possibility of an increased risk of cancer in humans.
“In order to assess the potential association, an observational study is planned to monitor the annual incidence of MTC as well as to identify any increase associated with tirzepatide,” she said.
A similar monitoring study is planned for pancreatic cancer, but the European Medicines Agency said there is currently no evidence of a link.
However, while warning of a possible higher cancer risk, the EMA noted that there is currently no “pharmacologically plausible mechanism” to cause cancer in humans.
“The significance of rodent thyroid tumors to humans is unknown,” the paper said last July.
Health officials also stressed that if such a risk were identified, it would change the drug’s “benefit-risk ratio”.
Since there is no significant association between tirzepatide and MTC yet, there is no need for drug manufacturers to list it as a potential risk.
Last year, the EMA recommended Mounjaro for patients with type 2 diabetes on the same grounds as US and UK regulators.
But tirzepatide is not the only drug under scrutiny by EU health officials.
Medications such as those containing semaglutide, the active ingredient in competing doses of Wegovy and Ozempic, are also under surveillance with similar concerns.
Source: Daily Mail
