Investigational weight-loss drug Retatrutide may be more effective than Ozempic

• Eli Lily’s new experimental weight loss drug is showing promise.
• Retatrutide, which just completed a Phase 2 clinical study, helped patients lose an average of 24% of their body weight.
• The drug improves on existing weight-loss drugs like Wegovy.

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Weight-loss drugs like Wegovy, Mounjaro and the type 2 diabetes drug Ozempic have been all over the headlines and on social media. The drugs are so popular that all three injectables are currently in short supply in the United States, indicating that there is huge demand for these types of drugs. Now apparently there is another one in the works known as retatrutide and it shows huge promise.

New Phase 2 clinical trial results for the investigational drug Eli Lilys show the drug could be even more effective than Ozempic and other predecessors. The study, published in The New England journal of medicine, followed 338 adults with obesity who took either retatrutide injections or a placebo for 48 weeks. At the end of the study, the researchers found that people in the retatrutide group taking the highest dose (12 milligrams per week) lost about 24 percent of their body weight, compared with those in the placebo group, who lost 2 percent of their body weight. their body weight. body weight.

It’s also worth noting that around a quarter of patients who took the 12mg dose lost more than 30% of their body weight within 48 weeks. The conclusion was straightforward, with the researchers noting that obese adults taking retatrutide had a substantial reduction in body weight.

Surprisingly, on average, obese participants taking the highest dose of retatrutide lost nearly a quarter of their body weight, an average of 58 pounds with 11 months of treatment, says lead study author Ania M. Jastreboff, MD. , Ph.D. , director of the Yale Obesity Research Center. Additionally, participants had not yet reached a weight plateau at the time of study termination. Meaning their weight was still declining rather than at a steady state.

But what is retatrutide and how does it work and is it for anyone trying to lose weight? Here’s what you need to know.

What is retatrutide and how does it work?

It is important to note that retatrutide is still an investigational drug under study. It means it can’t be prescribed to you right now. However, it certainly shows promise.

Retatrutide is a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonist, like Wegovy and Ozempic. But, while it works similar to those drugs, it also works on two additional hormones: glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP), which helps manage blood sugar, and glucagon, which can help suppress cravings and burn more. power.

It’s what we call a trial drug, says Kunal Shah, MD, assistant professor in the division of endocrinology at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical Center. Mounjaro is a dual agonist, has a GLP-1 moiety and a GIP moiety. Wegovy is just a GLP-1. Researchers continue to add these items and have seen more efficient weight loss.

The results published in the study are startling, says Scott Keatley, RD, co-owner of Keatley Medical Nutrition Therapy. Keatley also noted that study participants had reductions in A1C (a measure of blood sugar levels), blood pressure and LDL (bad) cholesterol, as well as weight loss.

Retatrutide side effects

The study cited some side effects of taking retatrutide, and they tended to be more intense at higher doses. Those included:

• Nausea
• Diarrhea
• Vomit
• Constipation

The researchers noted in the study that symptoms were mostly mild to moderate in severity and that they were less intense when patients were given a lower starting dose of 2 mg compared to 4 mg.

A small number of patients (7%) experienced skin tingling, and there was a reported increase in heart rate for up to 24 weeks in people in the retatrutide group (it decreased after 24 weeks).

Retatrutide versus Ozempic, Wegovy and other weight loss drugs

Again, retatrutide research is ongoing. But the data so far shows that retatrutide can help people lose even more weight than other popular picks.

Previous research on people who took semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy) showed participants lost about 15 percent of their body weight after six months of treatment. Mounjaro, also made by Eli Lilly, helped study participants lose up to 23% of their body weight.

Beyond Ozempic: Are Drugs the Future of Weight Loss?

Experts say it’s definitely helpful to have an arsenal of drugs to help people with obesity lose weight. Different drugs have different pathways to work, Keatley says. For example, if someone has a history of kidney problems, this drug may not be a good choice, but there may be others on the market that work within these limits.

Dr Shah says more effective drugs could alter the way obesity is treated in the future. This is improving what we already have, he says. To be able to achieve weight loss in the 20% range, we are now seeing drugs that can compete with bariatric surgery in terms of weight loss. It is exciting.

But Keatley cautions against people thinking they should take a diet drug if they want to lose a few pounds. Pharmacological interventions like weight-loss drugs are here to stay, she says. But these are not drugs like an antibiotic that you take for 10 days and you can go back to living life as you were before. These are drugs that will only work long term with changes in behavior.

Jessica Cording, RD, author of The Little Book of Revolutionaries, he expects that an increasing number of people who don’t have obesity will want to try these drugs. We will continue to see interest in these types of drugs, she says. The more we learn, the more we are able to understand which types of drugs benefit people the most, and we gain a better understanding of appropriate dosage and regimens.

Cording notes that research is ongoing in people with obesity, though not those trying to lose 5 pounds or so. Obesity is a medical condition, she says. It’s not just about having a few extra pounds. But we will always see people who want to turn to these drugs for a quick fix.

Dr. Shah says the drugs are designed to be used even with changes in diet and exercise. Lifestyle changes will still be absolutely the most important things, he says. With some of these older drugs, if you don’t incorporate diet and exercise, the drugs aren’t as effective.

Keatley points out that the latest study did not release body composition data and that there are many unknowns about how medications affect people over time. Was most of this weight loss fat or was it a combination of water, glycogen and muscle? he says. These are important data for long-term reduction of the risk of obesity-related conditions and data are not yet available.

As for retatrutide, Dr. Jastreboff says Phase 3 clinical trials will investigate how well people are able to lose weight while taking the drug for longer periods of time.