An emerging weight-loss drug could help some obese people with type 2 diabetes shed up to a quarter of their body weight, while keeping blood sugar under control, a clinical trial has found.<\/p>\n
Retatrutide works by mimicking three different hormones to control hunger and blood sugar, as well as speeding up metabolism.<\/p>\n
It differs from other GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1) drugs as the latter only mimic one or two different hormones.<\/p>\n
The trial, known as Triumph-2, took place at 92 sites in eight countries, with more than 2,000 patients taking part.<\/p>\n
All had a body mass index (BMI) of more than 27 and type 2 diabetes.<\/p>\n
Some 1,152 patients were prescribed retatrutide, ranging from 4mg to 12mg, or a placebo.<\/p>\n
After 80 weeks, those on 4mg of retatrutide lost 11.9% of their body weight on average.<\/p>\n
This increased to 16.8% with 9mg and 18.8% with 12mg.<\/p>\n
Those in the placebo group lost 5.1% on average.<\/p>\n
At the 12mg dose, almost half (47%) of patients lost at least 20% of their starting weight and 31% lost at least a quarter.<\/p>\n
This is compared with 6% and 3% respectively, in the placebo group.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere, almost three-quarters (72%) achieved an HbA1c of 6.5% or lower \u2013 the standard threshold used by many health experts to diagnose diabetes \u2013 compared with 29% on placebo.<\/p>\n
The most frequently reported side effects during the study were diarrhoea and nausea.<\/p>\n
There were also seven deaths \u2013 two in the retatrutide 4mg group, three in the 9mg group, one in the 12mg group, and one in the placebo group.<\/p>\n
However, these were deemed unrelated to the study intervention by the investigator.<\/p>\n
The researchers said the trial suggests \u201cretatrutide may advance the treatment of obesity and type 2 diabetes, a population where weight reduction has been challenging to achieve\u201d.<\/p>\n
They added: \u201cRetatrutide demonstrated substantial reduction in body weight, alongside improvements in blood sugar control and cardiometabolic risk factors, with a safety profile generally similar to other molecules with GLP-1 receptor agonist activity.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese findings support obesity treatment as a strategy for people with obesity and type 2 diabetes.<\/p>\n
\u201cFurther studies are required to determine whether these benefits translate to improvements in other obesity-related complications.\u201d<\/p>\n
The findings were presented on Sept 30 (2026) at the annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) in Milan, Italy, and published Oct 1 (2026) in The Lancet\u00a0medical journal.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, a separate study being presented at EASD found the investigational drug petrelintide helped people lose more than 10% of their body weight, but with fewer side effects.<\/p>\n
The once-weekly injection mimics the natural pancreatic hormone amylin to make patients feel fuller faster.<\/p>\n
Researchers suggest it could benefit those who cannot tolerate GLP-1 drugs.<\/p>\n
The trial took place across 32 sites in the United States, Poland and Romania, and included 485 people who were given either petrelintide or a placebo.<\/p>\n
Those prescribed the drug were given doses ranging from 1mg to 9mg.<\/p>\n
Mean weight loss in body fat percentage was 8.7% for the lowest dose and 10.2% for the highest.<\/p>\n
The most common side effect was nausea, with the trial finding the \u201cvast majority\u201d of patients were able to escalate to the highest doses.<\/p>\n
The researchers said \u201camylin-based therapies for obesity might substantially improve tolerability and overall patient experience, and potentially drive greater treatment adherence\u201d. \u2013 By Storm Newton\/PA Media\/dpa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An emerging weight-loss drug could help some obese people with type 2 diabetes shed up to a quarter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":922945,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[49,48,2971,23742,84,377,1229,953,406],"class_list":["post-922944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-drugs","tag-glp-1-receptor-agonists","tag-health","tag-medication","tag-obesity","tag-weight-loss","tag-wellness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=922944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/922945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=922944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=922944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=922944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}