Lilly data point to ‘maintenance’ strategies for GLP-1 weight loss

Dive Brief:

Eli Lilly is offering new data suggesting its medicines can help patients who take injectable GLP-1 drugs keep most of the weight off long-term.
The research included patients who achieved significant weight loss with either Lilly’s Zepbound or Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy. Researchers wanted to see how patients fared for another year when given the same treatment, a lower-dose version of an injection or Lilly’s newly launched Foundayo pill. In both trials, the medical options significantly outperformed placebo.
Lilly detailed the studies on Tuesday to coincide with their presentation at an obesity conference in Europe and publication in medical journals. One of the trials, dubbed Surmount-Maintain, was published in The Lancet, while the other, Attain-Maintain, appeared in Nature Medicine. Lilly had given investors a preview of the Nature Medicine research in December.

Dive Insight:

Lilly is trying to tackle a fundamental issue with the GLP-1 medicines that have transformed obesity treatment. Patients are losing a lot of weight but have little interest in taking injections for the rest of their lives, often falling off treatment. And research has shown that much of the weight comes roaring back when patients discontinue the drugs.

The GLP-1 injections “have proven to be highly efficacious and safe for use, but persistence on therapy remains challenging,” researchers wrote in Nature Medicine. Maintenance therapies offer a different option for patients who either tired of the shots or are hoping to lower their doses.

In the new Surmount-Maintain study, researchers looked at patients who had lost an average of about 50 pounds after 60 weeks of treatment with the highest dose of Zepbound they could tolerate. The group who continued to receive that dose lost an average of almost two more pounds in the 12-month maintenance period. Patients who received a smaller 5 milligram dose gained an average of 12 pounds.

Researchers in the Attain-Maintain study saw similar results, moving patients from either Wegovy or Zepbound to the Foundayo pill for a year after the original treatment period. The patients on Wegovy had lost an average of 41 pounds and then gained back only two pounds on Foundayo. The patients on Zepbound had lost an average of 55 pounds and gained back 11 pounds.