Lilly: Weight loss drug significantly cuts diabetes risk

(CNN) — A three-year study of tirzepatide – a medication approved in the US as Zepbound for diabetes and Mounjaro for weight loss – found that when adults who had prediabetes and obesity or overweight used it weekly, it lowered their risk of progression to diabetes by 94% compared with a placebo, according to drugmaker Eli Lilly & Company .

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The company said Tuesday that people who got a 15-milligram (mg) dose of the medicine also had an average decrease in body weight of nearly 23%, compared with 2.1% in those who got a placebo.

During a 17-week off-treatment follow-up period, people who had stopped using tirzepatide began to regain weight, Lilly said in a news release, and there was “some increase in the progression to type 2 diabetes.”

“The most frequently reported adverse events were typically gastrointestinal-related and generally mild to moderate in severity,” Lilly said. “The most common gastrointestinal-related adverse events for patients treated with tirzepatide were diarrhea, nausea, constipation, and vomiting.”

Prediabetes is a condition in which blood sugar, or glucose, levels are higher than normal but don’t reach the criteria for a diagnosis of diabetes. It affects about 1 in 3 adults in the US – 84 million people – and about 70% will go on to be diagnosed with diabetes. Lifestyle changes – especially weight loss – have generally been considered the most important management tool.

Tirzepatide works by mimicking hormones that stimulate the release of insulin, increase feelings of fullness and reduce appetite. It targets two hormone receptors, GIP and GLP-1. It’s part of a new class of drugs that includes semaglutide, known as Ozempic for diabetes and Wegovy for weight loss, which have skyrocketed in popularity in recent years.

In earlier trials of Zepbound, the medication was found to yield more average weight loss than other approved medicines, and in November, the US Food and Drug Administration approved it as Mounjaro for people with obesity or those characterized as overweight with at least one weight-related health condition, such as high blood pressure or heart disease. Like similar drugs, it’s used as a shot patients give themselves once a week and is recommended on top of a reduced-calorie diet and increased exercise.

The results of the new trial “will be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal and presented at ObesityWeek 2024” in November, Lilly says.

CNN’s Meg Tirrell contributed to this report.