(Reuters) – Eli Lilly said on Wednesday its weight-loss drug helped nearly 99% of patients remain diabetes-free after three years of weekly injections.
The results suggest that tirzepatide – the active ingredient in Lilly’s diabetes drug Mounjaro and weight-loss treatment Zepbound – could prevent one new case of diabetes for every nine patients treated.
The company initially disclosed the trial results in August.
The detailed data, published in The New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday, showed an association of the drug with improvements in blood glucose levels, cardiometabolic risk factors, and health-related quality of life, which sustained over three years.
The late-stage trial, which enrolled 1,032 adults with prediabetes and obesity, demonstrated a 94% reduction in the risk of progression to type 2 diabetes compared to placebo.
Patients treated with weekly injections showed an average weight reduction of up to 22.9%, maintained for over three years.
“These results are impressive given the degree of sustained weight reduction and decrease in risk of diabetes,” said Ania Jastreboff, director of the Yale Obesity Research Center.
Eli Lilly and rival Novo Nordisk have been testing their drugs for conditions beyond obesity and diabetes.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is set to decide on the use of Lilly’s weight-loss drug to treat moderate-to-severe obstructive sleep apnea.
The company plans to submit data on heart failure with preserved ejection fraction and obesity to the U.S. FDA and other global regulatory agencies later this year.
(Reporting by Sriparna Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid)
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