STAT+: Eli Lilly’s Zepbound combined with amylin drug led to significant weight loss in mid-stage trial — SkimNews
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- Eli Lilly's combination of GLP-1 drug Zepbound and amylin-targeting eloralintide produced 23.3% weight loss at the highest dose after 48 weeks in a mid-stage study of patients with obesity and type 2 diabetes.
- The combo beat either monotherapy — Zepbound alone yielded 14.8% weight loss and eloralintide alone yielded 11.1% at their highest tested doses.
- The result is notable because patients with type 2 diabetes typically lose less weight on obesity medications than patients without diabetes.
- Investigators presented the results Wednesday at the annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes.
- High discontinuation rates in the combination arms may raise tolerability questions for the dual-mechanism approach.
Why it matters: Lilly is racing to bring next-generation obesity drugs to market, and the 23.3% weight loss at 48 weeks — exceeding either Zepbound (14.8%) or eloralintide (11.1%) alone — positions the dual-mechanism approach as a step-change candidate. But high dropout rates could undercut the therapy's real-world adherence and complicate its case with regulators.
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