Major weight loss pill breakthrough as clinical trial sees people lose 16lbs

The first weight loss pill to suppress appetite has been shown to work in clinical trials.

The daily pill, by the manufacturers of weight loss jabs, saw participants manage to lose 8% of their body weight in ten months. Pharma giant Lilly has released breakthrough results of its phase 3 trial of orforglipron which show GLP-1 drugs which make people feel full quicker can work in tablet form.

Lilly already sells millions of injections known by their brand names Wegovy and Ozempic which mimic the GLP-1 hormone to suppress appetite. Participants who had diabetes and were obese lost 16lbs on average over the study period and the pill was found to be just as safe as GLP-1 injections already on the market.

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Lilly chief executive David Ricks said: “As a convenient once-daily pill, orforglipron may provide a new option and, if approved, could be readily manufactured and launched at scale for use by people around the ."

GLP-1 drugs slow digestion and reduce appetite by mimicking a hormone called glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) which regulates hunger and feelings of fullness. They can cause side effects such as vomiting and require personalised support from specialists so that weight loss is maintained.

Without significant diet and lifestyle changes, GLP-1 drug users can lose muscle and fat mass before piling fat back on. However some in government have suggested GLP-1s could be key to getting some people on sickness benefits back to work and are going to be prescribed to millions of obese patients by the in the coming years.

The trial of orforglipron showed it was effective for both its “end points” of blood sugar control and weight loss. It is unclear whether it will be prescribed for obesity or just for obese patients with Type 2 diabetes if UK regulators approve it for the NHS.

Professor Rachel Batterham, senior vice president for medical affairs at Lilly, said: “Living with type 2 diabetes can be challenging, especially when daily management involves complex treatment routines. Orforglipron could potentially offer a promising new option for the more than 75% of people with type 2 diabetes who prefer pills over injections.”

GLP-1 injections have seen global shortages after becoming popular on the back of a host of celebrities speaking publicly about taking them. They included Sharon Osbourne, Elon Musk and even ex-PM boasted about buying them privately for weight loss. Heralding the results of the ACHIEVE-1 trial, Lilly said it was “confident in its ability to launch orforglipron worldwide without supply constraints”.

A hemoglobin A1C (HbA1C) test is a blood test that shows what your average blood sugar level was over the past two to three months and is crucial for diabetes sufferers. The primary endpoint of the anonymised clinical trial was to see if orforglipron cut HbA1C levels more than participants given a placebo dummy drug. Those on the highest dose of orforglipron saw their HbA1C result reduced by 1.5% compared to 0.1% in the placebo group.

People with a HbA1C score of over 6.5% are considered to have diabetes according to the American Diabetes Association. Two thirds of participants taking the highest dose of orforglipron achieved an HbA1C score below this by the end of the trial.

Prof Naveed Sattar, expert at Glasgow University, who was not involved in the research, said: “These are important results. Having new oral agents that lower glucose but also meaningfully lower weight well beyond levels seen with most existing diabetes therapies is critical to future type 2 diabetes care.

“This because recent research has shown excess weight not only leads to type 2 diabetes in the first place in many but that it is also a major contributor to many of its associated complications. Intentional weight loss also often helps improve patients’ quality of life. Of course, one caveat is that we do not know the effects of this newer therapy on cardiovascular outcomes but this will be forthcoming in future trials.”

Lilly CEO David Ricks added: "ACHIEVE-1 is the first of seven Phase 3 studies examining the safety and efficacy of orforglipron across people with diabetes and obesity. We are pleased to see that our latest incretin medicine meets our expectations for safety and tolerability, glucose control and weight loss, and we look forward to additional data readouts later this year.”

The NHS has warned people who are not obese are buying GLP-1 injections online without proper safeguards. The General Pharmaceutical Council has told online pharmacies they can no longer prescribe the weekly injections after reading a patient questionnaire, and instead must verify whether a user is actually dangerously overweight.