The maker of Zepbound reported results from a study of retatrutide, which targets three hormones in the body and led to much more weight loss than any approved drug.
…
The clinical trial that found the result lasted 68 weeks and included 445 people with both obesity and knee arthritis. They were randomly assigned to inject one of two doses of retatrutide — nine milligrams or 12 milligrams, once a week, or a placebo.
In an additional post-hoc analysis, 14.1% of patients on retatrutide 9 mg and 12.0% patients on retatrutide 12 mg were completely free of knee pain at 68 weeks compared to 4.2% on placebo, based on the observed efficacy estimand data.
Discontinuation rates due to adverse events were 12.2% and 18.2% with retatrutide 9 mg and 12 mg, respectively, compared to 4.0% with placebo.These rates were highly correlated with baseline BMI and included discontinuations for perceived excessive weight loss.
Reading between the lines: the drug at that dose was almost too effective for weight loss. The other hint is that Lilly updated the inclusion criteria for retatrutide to people with BMI>35 only.
If that wasn’t clear before, these weight loss numbers are now squarely in competition with bariatric surgery numbers, with no indication of plateau after 68 weeks.
