New drug that curbs appetite and burns calories is most powerful weight-loss treatment ever and like ‘exercise in a jab’
A new drug that suppresses appetite and helps users burn more calories is the most powerful weight-loss treatment yet, a major trial finds.
The study suggests that retatrutide, which has been likened to ‘exercise with a needle’, outperforms Wegovy and Mounjaro and is ‘as good as surgery’.
Patients taking a 12 mg dose typically lost more than a quarter (28.3%) of their body weight in just 18 months; This is equivalent to 31.9 kg or 5 stone.
The breakthrough drug also reduced patients’ waist circumference by an average of 9.5 inches (24.1 cm), according to newly published trial results.
Meanwhile, 45.3 percent of participants achieved at least a 30 percent weight loss over the 80-week study; This is a long level associated with bariatric surgery.
Mounjaro, currently the most powerful licensed weight loss drug, helps users lose approximately 20.9 percent of body weight when taken for 72 weeks.
Both are manufactured by US pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Company, which is likely to apply for authorization to sell retatrutide in the UK within a few months.
Retatrutide, also known by the nicknames ‘Godzilla’, ‘reta’ and ‘triple G’, is a triple agonist, meaning it acts on three different hormone receptors to help users slim down.
Study suggests retatrutide, likened to ‘exercise in one punch’, outperforms Wegovy and Mounjaro and is ‘as good as surgery’
That’s two more than Wegovy and one more than Mounjaro, which is available to those most in need in the NHS.
The medications work by mimicking hormones that regulate appetite and slow stomach emptying.
Retatrutide goes further, helping the body burn more calories by also acting on glucagon, which has been shown to increase energy expenditure.
The latest findings come from TRIUMPH-1, a Phase 3 clinical trial evaluating the effectiveness and safety of retatrutide in 2,339 obese and overweight adults with at least one weight-related disease other than diabetes.
In addition to weight loss, participants also showed significant improvements in certain cardiovascular risk factors, such as bad cholesterol, blood fats, blood pressure and inflammation.
Eli Lilly was forced to issue a warning after promising results from early-stage trials led to an increase in the number of people trying to obtain the drug through social media.
The firm said anyone using counterfeit medicines from unauthorized sources was putting their health at ‘serious risk’, threatening to take action against sellers.
Trial users taking 4 mg of retatrutide once a week lost an average of 19 percent of their body weight over 80 weeks, and those taking 9 mg lost an average of 25.9 percent.
Eli Lilly was forced to issue a warning after promising results from early-stage trials led to an increase in the number of people trying to obtain the drug via social media.
Dr Kenneth Custer, Lilly’s executive vice president, said: ‘The 12 mg dose produced weight loss at a level long associated with bariatric surgery.’
Professor Ania Jastreboff, principal investigator of the study at Yale School of Medicine, said: ‘Obesity is a chronic disease and people living with obesity deserve treatment options tailored to the complex biology of their neurometabolic disease.
It was impressive to see that each dose of ‘Retatrutide’ resulted in clinically significant weight loss for almost all participants, and at the highest dose people with severe obesity lost an average of 30 per cent of their body weight within two years.
‘Importantly, retatrutide treatment not only produced robust weight loss but also marked improvements in cardiometabolic health measures assessed.
‘For the patients I see in clinic, retatrutide could potentially be a highly effective tool in the future to treat their obesity and transform their health trajectories.’
The types of adverse events seen were generally consistent with trials of other weight-loss vaccines, including nausea, diarrhea, constipation, and vomiting.
People with a baseline body mass index of 35 or more (meaning they were severely obese) lost an average of 30.3 percent of their body weight in a study that was extended to 104 weeks.
Commenting on the findings, Dr. from Anglia Ruskin University. Simon Cork said: ‘These initial results are incredibly promising in showing that we are now truly on track to tackle the obesity crisis.
Henry Dimbleby, co-founder of the Leon restaurant chain and author of the Government’s National Food Strategy, said he expected one in four Britons to soon be taking weight-loss pills.
‘The results demonstrate the superior weight loss effects of Retatrutide to all existing weight loss drugs, with side effects similar to those seen with other GLP-1 based drugs.
‘Obesity is a lifelong, relapsing and remitting disease that, for most people, requires active medical treatment to control.
‘The rapid development of effective and safe drugs to treat obesity should be welcomed, but it will take time for health services to adapt to make these treatments available to everyone who could benefit.’
The findings come after Henry Dimbleby, co-founder of the Leon restaurant chain and author of the Government’s National Food Strategy, said he expected one in four Britons would soon be taking weight-loss pills.
He told the British Nutrition Foundation conference: ‘We will create a society where you can choose your weight and where most people can choose not to be obese or overweight.
‘I actually think we’re going to come to a world where you take the pill whether you like it or not.
‘When you start spreading you’re given the pill at 40, just like you get your statin or your aspirin at 50, and there will be a combination of these as well; society will use these drugs forever.’
