ADA: Once-Weekly Tirzepatide Yields Lasting Weight Loss in Obesity

TUESDAY, June 7, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- For individuals with obesity, tirzepatide is associated with lasting weight loss, according to a study published online June 4 in the New England Journal of Medicine to coincide with the annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association, held from June 3 to 7 in New Orleans.

Ania M. Jastreboff, M.D., Ph.D., from the Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, and colleagues conducted a phase 3 trial involving 2,539 adults with a body mass index of 30 kg/m² or more or 27 kg/m² or more and at least one weight-related complication, excluding diabetes. Participants were randomly assigned to receive once-weekly subcutaneous tirzepatide (5, 10, or 15 mg) or placebo for 72 weeks in a 1:1:1:1 ratio.

The researchers found that the mean percentage change in weight was −15.0, −19.5, and −20.9 percent for the 5-, 10-, and 15-mg weekly doses of tirzepatide, respectively, and −3.1 percent with placebo. The percentages of participants with a weight reduction of 5 percent or more were 85, 89, and 91 percent for the 5-, 10-, and 15-mg weekly doses of tirzepatide, respectively, and 35 percent with placebo; a reduction in body weight of 20 percent or more occurred in 50 and 57 percent of participants in the 10- and 15-mg tirzepatide groups, respectively, and in 3 percent of those in the placebo group. In all prespecified cardiometabolic measures, there were improvements observed with tirzepatide.

"Obesity should be treated like any other chronic disease -- with effective and safe approaches that target underlying disease mechanisms, and these results underscore that tirzepatide may be doing just that," Jastreboff said in a statement.

Several authors disclosed financial ties to biopharmaceutical companies, including Eli Lilly, which manufactures tirzepatide and funded the study.

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