Retatrutide is one of those drugs. It helped people lose a massive amount of weight in clinical trials. It also improved sleep apnea and knee pain.
Wegovy is the first GLP-1 approved for weight loss, but there are several new GLP-1 drugs in development.
One of the most anticipated new weight-loss drugs also helped people struggling with common obesity-related conditions like sleep apnea.
The drug is retatrutide, which pairs GLP-1, GIP and glucagon in a powerful combination that produces more weight loss than any other therapy. It's currently in Phase 3 trials, and Wall Street expects Eli Lilly's (LLY) once-weekly drug to launch in the U.S. next year if it's approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
Retatrutide is the most effective weight-loss drug so far, producing 28.3% weight loss in people who are obese or overweight over about a year and a half, according to new data released Saturday at the American Diabetes Association's annual meeting in New Orleans. The data aligns with another recent readout. Even the lowest of the three doses in the trial produced 19% weight loss.
In front of a full room at the conference, the researchers also said for the first time that the drug helped improve blood sugar, knee osteoarthritis pain and obstructive sleep apnea, all of which are common conditions for people with obesity.
"For decades, we've treated obesity and its complications one at a time - diabetes, knee osteoarthritis pain, moderate-to-severe obstructive sleep apnea - as if they were unrelated," Lilly CEO David Ricks wrote on LinkedIn.
The experimental drug is the undisputed leader in the next wave of weight-loss therapies that could soon come to market. Compared to the currently available drugs - Lilly's Zepbound and Foundayo and Novo Nordisk's (NVO) (DK:NOVO.B) comprehensive Wegovy franchise - the therapies in development are designed to be more effective, require fewer doses, improve cardiometabolic measures like blood pressure and sleep apnea, or even reduce the gastrointestinal side effects that patients hate dealing with.
They also fit in with a more personalized approach to weight loss. With its powerful weight-loss capabilities, retatrutide may be more suited to people with severe obesity, while the pills are increasingly viewed as a maintenance option or for people with less weight to lose.
"It's reasonable to expect in this large and growing market and opportunity in obesity with the number of patients around the world living with overweight or obesity numbering, perhaps in the billions, that many of them are going to want different types of medicines that are tailored to their individual needs and preferences," Kenneth Custer, president of Lilly Cardiometabolic Health, told investors in April.
That includes fewer doses, and that's why Pfizer (PFE) is working on a GLP-1 shot that could be taken once a month. Right now, the available medications have to be dosed much more frequently. The Wegovy and Foundayo pills have to be taken daily, and the standard dosing for the Zepbound and Wegovy injections is once a week.
The drugmaker on Saturday shared new data showing that people taking 4.8 milligrams of berobenatide once a month lost 12.3% of their body weight in a Phase 2b study.
During an investor call on Saturday, Navin Katyal, a Pfizer executive, noted that patients and doctors now view these drugs as tools that address a chronic disease, not as a one-and-done medication. "Do I want to be tethered to something 50 times a week for perpetuity? Do I want to be tethered to something 365 days a year for perpetuity? Or can I do this in a sustainable way just 13 times a year?" he said.
Pfizer is hopeful that the experimental drug can lessen the side effects like nausea and diarrhea that occur with GLP-1s. That said, one study had a discontinuation rate of about 20%. But in a separate less rigorous study also examining berobenatide in obesity, less than 10% of people discontinued treatment. That's a good sign for this drug.
There are also several pills in development, including AstraZeneca's (AZN) elecoglipron and Structure Therapeutics' (GPCR) aleniglipron. In a note to investors, BMO Capital Markets analyst Evan David Seigerman described aleniglipron as a "potentially best-in-class" pill for its weight loss, which is about 16%. The Wegovy pill produces about 17% weight loss, while people taking a high dose of Foundayo lost about 11% of their body weight in clinical trials.
AstraZeneca is set to share the first weight-loss data for elecoglipron on Monday. The British drugmaker so far has only said the drug was successful in a mid-stage trial.
One last thing: There's more data coming for Boehringer Ingelheim and Zealand Pharma's (DK:ZEAL) late-stage GLP-1 injection. What's unique about this drug is the weight loss that survodutide triggers is fat, not muscle. This has been a long-standing concern about weight loss associated with GLP-1s.
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