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An experimental drug has allowed people with obesity or overweight to lose about 22.5 percent of their body weight, an average of about 52 pounds, the drug maker announced on Thursday.
The company, Eli Lilly, has not yet submitted the data for publication in a peer-reviewed medical journal or made it available in a public setting. But claims however, it surprised medical professionals.
CEO of Verve Therapeutics, a company focused on heart disease drugs, Dr. “Wow (and a double Wow!),” Sekar Kathiresan wrote. in a tweet. Drugs like Eli Lilly’s “will truly revolutionize the treatment of obesity!!!”
Dr. Kathiresan has nothing to do with Eli Lilly or drugs.
An obesity specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital, Dr. Lee Kaplan said the drug’s effect “appears to be significantly better than other anti-obesity drugs currently available in the United States.” ”
Consulting a dozen pharmaceutical companies, including Eli Lilly, Dr. Kaplan said he was not involved in the new trial or development of this drug.
On average, study participants weighed 231 pounds at baseline and had a body mass index, or BMI — a commonly used measure of obesity — of 38. (Obesity is defined as a BMI of 30 and above.)
At the end of the study, those who took higher doses of the Eli Lilly drug called tirzepatide weighed about 180 pounds and had an average BMI of just under 30. Results often far exceed those seen in trials of weight loss drugs, and are usually seen only in surgical patients.
Working with Eli Lilly, director of the comprehensive weight control program at Weill Cornell Medical Center and principal investigator of the study, Dr. Louis J. Aronne said some of the experiment participants lost enough weight to fall within the normal range.
Most people in the trial did not qualify for bariatric surgery, which is reserved for people with a BMI over 40 or those with a BMI between 35 and 40 who have sleep apnea or Type 2 diabetes. People with obesity have a much higher risk of developing diabetes than those who do not.
A spokesperson for Eli Lilly said the company has no public timeline for the drug to gain approval from the Food and Drug Administration.
Because obesity is a chronic medical condition, patients will need to take tirzepatide for life, just as they do for blood pressure or cholesterol medications, for example.
D., an obesity specialist at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and paid consultant to Novo Nordisk. Robert F. Kushner, of the new drug, A similar but less effective one from Novo Nordiskcan close a so-called treatment gap.
Diet and exercise, combined with previous obesity medications, usually results in perhaps 10 percent weight loss in patients. This is enough to improve health, but not enough to make a big difference in the lives of obese people.
The only other treatment is bariatric surgery, which can cause significant weight loss. But many people are not fit or do not want the surgery.
With Eli Lilly medicine and Novo Nordisk’s semaglutideDr. “We are on the verge of a truly new treatment modality,” Kushner said, which was recently approved.
But prices can be a barrier. Insurers generally do not pay for weight loss drugs. The list price of the Novo Nordisk drug, brand name Wegovy, is $1,349.02 per month.
Experts worry that if approved, tirzepatide could carry a price in the same range. Many people who might benefit most from weight loss may not be able to afford such expensive medications.
The Eli Lilly study lasted 72 weeks and included 2,539 participants. Many qualified as obese, while others were overweight, but also had risk factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, cardiovascular disease or obstructive sleep apnea.
They were divided into four groups. All received dietary counseling to reduce their calorie intake by about 500 per day.
One group was randomly assigned to receive a placebo, while the other three received tirzepatide in doses ranging from 5 milligrams to 15 milligrams. The patients self-injected the drug once a week.
Researchers found that those who took the highest dose lost the most weight. Participants taking the placebo lost 2.4 percent of their weight, an average of 5 pounds, typical for a diet study.
Eli Lilly’s senior medical director of the obesity program, Dr. Nadia Ahmad said seeing the results was an emotional moment for her.
“I don’t think I ever imagined we could achieve this degree of weight loss with a drug,” she said. “We came to this point with surgery”
For decades, people who were overweight or obese were told it was up to them to solve the problem. Diet and exercise were prescriptions and didn’t work for many people. Many have tried diet after diet, just to regain the weight they’ve lost.
Last year, the situation began to change When Novo Nordisk received approval from the Food and Drug Administration to market semaglutide. The drug can cause 15 percent to 17 percent weight loss in people with obesity.
The drugs are among a new class of drugs called incretins, which are naturally occurring hormones that slow stomach emptying, regulate insulin, and reduce appetite. Side effects include nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. However, most patients tolerate or do not bother with these effects.
Incretins raises the bar for weight loss possible with drugs. But they also ask tough questions about whether bariatric surgery is a relic of the past. New incretins are under development that may be even more potent than the Eli Lilly drug.
Dr. Even without them, the reductions observed with the Eli Lilly drug were “in the range of surgical weight loss,” Aronne said.
Some patients who have had bariatric surgery describe mixed results. Sarah Bramblette, a board member of the Obesity Action Coalition, had bariatric surgery solely to regain her weight.
Now 44, she weighed 500kg when she had surgery 20 years ago, which allowed her to drop to 250kg. Over the years, her weight has returned to 490 pounds. He needed heart surgery, but it was too heavy for the operating table. Diets—and she tried them over and over—didn’t help she.
Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide helped drop it to 430 pounds. Ms. Bramblette said she would like to try the Eli Lilly drug if it comes to market.
“Trust me, I’d rather not be this tall,” said Miss Bramblette. “I have to lose weight.”
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