The most potent of the drugs currently approved for inducing weight loss has an even greater effect when combined with another hormone-targeting treatment. The findings suggest that combining the two could lead to more effective weight-loss therapies, an approach that could become available for wider use in the next few years. Tirzepatide, sold under the brand names Mounjaro and Zepbound, is the most potent approved weight-loss drug.
In the UK, the US, Europe and beyond, it is used to treat adults who have type 2 diabetes or obesity, or who are overweight and have at least one weight-related condition, such as high blood pressure. The drug is administered through weekly injections. It mimics two appetite-suppressing hormones: GLP-1 and GIP.
Postbiotic supplement boosts body’s own GLP-1 and weight loss Searching for an even stronger alternative, Dan Skovronsky at Eli Lilly in Indiana and his colleagues recruited 367 people from the US and Argentina who were overweight or who had obesity, all of whom had type 2 diabetes. They randomly split the participants into groups, then gave some a high, 15-milligram dose of tirzepatide. Other groups received varying doses of tirzepatide in combination with eloralintide, a drug that targets a different appetite-suppressing hormone, amylin, and was delivered via a second weekly injection.
The team named this dual approach EloraTZP. The remaining participants received placebo injections. Eleven months later, participants receiving only the 15-milligram tirzepatide dose had lost 15.6 kilograms, or about 14.8 per cent of their body weight, on average.
In contrast, those who received the highest dose of eloralintide and the 15-milligram dose of tirzepatide lost about 24.5 kilograms on average, equivalent to 23.3 per cent of their body weight. The placebo group lost just 3 per cent of their body weight, on average. The findings were presented at the 62nd Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes in Milan, Italy, on 30 September.
The tirzepatide group also experienced a 2.4 per cent reduction, on average, in their blood sugar levels. The same figure was 2.9 per cent in the high-dose EloraTZP group and 0.3 per cent among those on the placebo. However, mild to moderate side effects, such as diarrhoea, nausea and vomiting, were more common in the EloraTZP groups than those on tirzepatide alone or the placebo.
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