The American pharmaceutical group Eli Lilly published on Thursday the results of a new clinical trial that confirms that its drug Tirzepatid, currently only approved in the United States against diabetes, helps with weight loss, AFP reported, citing Agerpres.

These results pave the way for the possible approval of this drug in the near future by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for people suffering from obesity.

The study included more than 900 overweight or obese participants diagnosed with type 2 diabetes (the most common type). Medicines are administered only once a week in the form of injections.

People who received the highest dose lost an average of 15.6 kilograms (15.7% reduction in body weight) over about a year and a half (72 weeks).

Side effects were, as a rule, gastrointestinal problems (nausea, diarrhea, vomiting).

The pharmaceutical company hopes to have the drug approved for the treatment of obesity by the end of this year

With these results, Eli Lilly plans to complete its application for approval of the drug for obese and overweight patients “in the coming weeks” and “expects a regulatory decision by the end of 2023.”

The first clinical trial, whose results were published in a scientific journal in June 2021 and which targeted people who were obese and overweight but not diabetic, showed an even more significant weight loss of about 21%.

Tirzepatide mimics a gastrointestinal hormone (GLP-1), which activates receptors in the brain that play a role in appetite regulation.

The drug is marketed under the name Mounjaro for people with type 2 diabetes after FDA approval in May 2022.

But some American doctors are already prescribing it off-licence, recommending it to people who want to lose weight, even if they don’t have diabetes.

In the United States, approximately 40% of adults are obese.

How much will the global obesity treatment market grow by 2030

Treatment with GLP-1 analogues is a real hope for many specialists, as they cause much greater weight loss than drugs available today.

There is also a significant commercial stake for pharmaceutical companies: Morgan Stanley estimates that the global market for obesity treatments could reach $54 billion by 2030.

Manufacturer Novo Nordisk already sells a new drug of this type in the United States, called Wegovy, which was approved by the FDA for obesity in June 2021.

Its approved anti-diabetic counterpart Ozempic, which uses the same molecule (semaglutide), has recently faced intermittent shortages after making headlines on social media for its weight-loss properties.

However, medical experts are concerned about the risk of people who are not clearly overweight using it to lose a few pounds.

In the United States, access to these extremely expensive new drugs (about $1,000 a month) is also a problem because they are rarely reimbursed by health insurance companies. At the same time, they must be taken long-term, otherwise, after stopping treatment, the patient risks gaining weight again.

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