FDA approves new obesity drug Zepbound, which will rival the popular Wegovy
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Tirzepatide, which is already approved for diabetes under the brand name Mounjaro, is also found in the new obesity drug, Zepbound.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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WASHINGTON - The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday approved an obesity drug from the company Eli Lilly that will be a direct competitor to the wildly popular Wegovy.
The drug is called tirzepatide and will be sold under the name Zepbound.
It joins a class of new medications that are transforming obesity, a condition that affects 100 million American adults and is linked to a spectrum of health conditions including diabetes, joint pain and sleep apnea as well as heart, kidney and liver diseases.
Patients who used tirzepatide lost an average of 18 per cent of their body weight, according to the FDA, when it was taken at its highest dose in a drug trial. That was compared with Wegovy, manufactured by Novo Nordisk, which produced an average 15 per cent weight loss.
The FDA approved Zepbound for people with obesity and for those who are overweight and have at least one obesity-related condition.
Tirzepatide is already approved for diabetes under the brand name Mounjaro where it competes with Novo Nordisk’s diabetes drug semaglutide, known better as Ozempic.
But until now, Wegovy – also semaglutide but with a higher maximum dose than Ozempic – was the only approved drug that could safely elicit substantial weight loss in people with obesity alone.
Side effects with Zepbound, similar to those with Wegovy, Ozempic and Mounjaro, are mostly gastrointestinal, including nausea and diarrhoea. Most patients tolerated or overcame them.
The approval comes at a time when Novo Nordisk is unable to produce enough Wegovy to satisfy the huge demand for the drug.
Tirzepatide, which patients take by a self-administered injection once a week, as they do with Wegovy, could ease those shortages. Competition could also result in lower prices for both drugs.
The hope is that Zepbound can reduce the chances that people with obesity will develop the potentially deadly complications that accompany the condition.
But Zepbound is only the beginning for Eli Lilly. The company and other pharmaceutical manufacturers are working on drugs that could be even more powerful.
The next Eli Lilly drug adds another gut hormone to the two in Zepbound. It apparently stimulates metabolism and draws fat out of the liver.
And, like Novo Nordisk and other companies, Eli Lilly is working on a pill form of tirzepatide. It is undergoing clinical testing. NYTIMES
