A FAT-busting jab hailed as the ‘King Kong’ of obesity treatments has been shown to help people shed a quarter of their body weight.
Tirzepatide – sold under the brand name is Mounjaro – was originally developed to treat diabetes and was approved for use in diabetic NHS patients earlier this month.
ReutersTirzepatide – brand name Moujaro – is licenced to treat diabetes but Eli Lily hopes to market it as a weight loss jab[/caption]
But its manufacturer Eli Lily is now looking to get the drug approved for obesity and weight loss management.
Tirzepatide follows in the footsteps of Ozempic – a once-weekly diabetes jab which was later green-lit for weight loss treatment under the brand name Wegovy.
Now, experts say tirzepatide is even more effective as a weight loss tool than its predecessors, causing users to lose 24 per cent of their body weight on average during an 84-week trial.
Like Wegovy and Ozempic – which contain the ingredient semaglutide – tirzepatide does cause some side effects, including nausea, diarrhoea, constipation and vomiting.
Eighty per cent of people participating in the most recent study reported experiencing at least one of those while taking tirzepatide.
But experts reckon it still causes fewer, less frequent and less intense symptoms compared to semaglutide.
On top of that, patients taking the drug shed more weight than people taking Wegovy or Ozempic in comparable studies.
They lost an average of 64lbs – about 29kg – achieving similar results to surgical interventions like gastric sleeve surgery, according to researchers.
Prior to presenting the results at Obesity Week conference taking place in Dallas, Texas, lead author and professor of psychology in psychiatry at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Thomas Wadden, said: “Patients who received lifestyle intervention and tirzepatide achieved a mean weight loss consistent with that produced by sleeve gastrectomy, a widely used procedure in metabolic and bariatric surgery.
“Tirzepatide could offer a safe and highly effective alternative to surgery for some persons with severe obesity.”
The study echoes previous research, which has found that tirzepatide helped patients lose 5kg more than semaglutide.
Leading US expert Dr Julio Rosenstock dubbed the drug the “King Kong” of obesity treatments, compared to the ‘gorilla’ of semaglutide, the Wall Street Journal reported.
How the study worked
Published in the journal Nature Medicine, the study followed 576 adults struggling with obesity, who had already lost about 6.9 per cent of their body weight through an intensive 12-week lifestyle switch-up that included diet changes and exercise.
A once-weekly dose of tirzepatide was then given to 287 of those, while the remaining participants received placebo jabs.
Those taking the drug lost an 18.4 per cent of their body weight.
In comparison, those taking the dummy shot gained back 2.5 per cent of their weight.
Dr Wadden said: “These are extraordinary findings.
“The additional weight loss produced further improvements, compared with placebo, in multiple measures of health, including waist circumference, blood pressure, cholesterol and triglycerides, blood sugar and physical functioning,” he added.
How tirzepatide works
Tirzepatide is a type of medication known as a GLP-1 agonist.
It mimics a naturally-occurring hormone in the body called a peptide to influence a specific hormone receptors linked to feelings of hunger and fullness.
It also helps to regulate insulin by mimicking a hormone called GIP.