A study of the literature published on Saturday found that a new diabetic medication promotes greater weight loss and lower blood sugar levels than its well-known competition semaglutide, better known as Ozempic.
Tirzepatide, marketed by US pharmaceutical behemoth Eli Lilly under the brand name Mounjaro, is currently authorized to treat type 2 diabetes in the US, Europe, and most recently the UK.
To further compete with Danish company Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide medicine, marketed as Ozempic for the treatment of diabetes or Wegovy for weight loss, Eli Lilly is attempting to have the medication approved in the US for obesity.
After Ozempic gained popularity on social media earlier this year for its capacity to aid in weight loss, surging demand resulted in sporadic supply shortages and worries that people who were not overweight or diabetic were using it to lose a few pounds.
Unreviewed, recent research that is being presented at a conference in Germany raises the possibility that Eli Lilly’s more recent medication might be even more beneficial.
The two medications, which are both administered once a week through injection, were the subjects of 22 prior randomised control trials. The data from these studies were merged by the Greek researchers.
The studies included roughly 18,500 type 2 diabetic patients in all, and the researchers used them to compare three different doses of both medications for at least 12 weeks.
According to lead author Thomas Karagiannis of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, “tirzepatide resulted in an average weight loss that was 5.7 kilograms (12.5 pounds) more than semaglutide” for the highest doses.
In comparison to the highest dose of semaglutide, it also caused a two percent decrease in blood sugar levels.
“However, it is also notable that the highest tirzepatide dose was associated with increased gastrointestinal adverse events,” Karagiannis added.
