Experimental weight loss pill seems to be more potent than Ozempic

An experimental drug appears to be better at reducing weight than existing injectable treatments such as Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro, according to early trial results reported March 7.

The drug, amycretin, can cause people to lose 13 percent of their body weight in three months, more than twice as much as Ozempic and Wegovy. “From the limited data we have, this approach seems more exciting,” said Daniel Drucker at the University of Toronto, Canada.

Drucker said the results came from a placebo-controlled trial that lasted three months, so it’s too early to know how doxorubicin’s long-term effectiveness and safety compare to other drugs. Drucker was not involved in the trial but has been consulted on it. Provides services to manufacturer Novo Nordisk and other pharmaceutical companies.

Diabetes drug Ozempic and weight loss drug Wegovy are two brand names for the compound semaglutide. They work by mimicking a gut hormone called GLP-1, which is normally released after eating. This makes people feel full, reduces appetite, and promotes the release of the blood sugar-regulating hormone insulin.

Semaglutide causes weight loss of about 15% after one year of taking it, but the weight then stabilizes and people need to continue taking the injections for a long time, otherwise the weight tends to gain back.

Another weight loss injection was launched last year called Mounjaro, also known as tirzepatide or Zepbound. It mimics GLP-1 and another intestinal hormone called GIP. Mounjaro appears to cause people to lose about 21 percent of their body weight within the first year and five months of use, before hitting a weight loss plateau.

However, pancreatin mimics GLP-1 and another hormone called amylin, which appears to make it more effective—at least during the first three months of treatment. According to Reuters, Novo Nordisk announced today that people who took doxorubicin lost 13% of their weight during this period. People who took the placebo lost 1% of their weight. This is higher than 6% in Wegovy and Ozempic and about 7.5% in Mounjaro.

Drucker said, however, that we can only know for sure how effective these drugs are in the long term if they are compared in a study under exactly the same conditions. “These are not head-to-head trials.”

Another caveat is that drugs that work by mimicking GLP-1 have been used to treat type 2 diabetes for more than a decade, so their safety profile is well known, whereas amylin mimetics are not.

Novo Nordisk also stated The side effects of Amamin are similar to those of Wegovy and tend to be nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea, especially in people who increase the dose too quickly.

Says, for people who don’t like injections, having it available in tablet form will be a big advantage Daniel Chancellor Global Pharmaceutical Business Analyst Citrine. “Oral medications are very attractive.”

In addition to these three drugs, other weight loss drugs that mimic other gut hormones are also in development.