Patients on Eli Lilly drug regain weight after stopping it

Patients who took Eli Lilly‘s weight reduction drug Zepbound regained around half the weight they shed after stopping the newly approved treatment for a 12 months, in keeping with data released Monday. 

The info, which represents the complete results from an 88-week study funded by Eli Lilly, suggests that folks should stay on the weekly injection in the event that they want to take care of significant weight reduction.

Shares of Eli Lilly closed greater than 2% lower Monday after the information was published within the research journal JAMA. The pharmaceutical giant released initial results from the identical study, which was conducted by some Eli Lilly employees and a few outside researchers, in July.

Zepbound, Novo Nordisk‘s weight reduction injection Wegovy and their blockbuster diabetes counterparts have soared in popularity, and in turn have run briefly supply within the U.S. over the past 12 months because they assist patients lose substantial weight without surgery. Some Wall Street analysts imagine Zepbound, which uses the identical energetic ingredient as Eli Lilly’s diabetes drug Mounjaro, could develop into the best-selling drug of all time.

Individuals who discontinue Wegovy and Novo Nordisk’s diabetes medication Ozempic have also regained weight, raising concerns amongst U.S. health insurers in regards to the high costs involved with long-term coverage of the pricey drugs.

The study on Eli Lilly’s treatment showed that 670 obese patients without diabetes lost around 20% of their body weight on average after taking Zepbound for 36 weeks. Half of those patients then continued the drug for an additional 52 weeks, while the opposite half switched to a placebo for the following 12 months.

Patients who continued Zepbound lost a further 6.7% of their weight on average from weeks 36 to 88, while those that stopped taking the drug regained 14.8% of their weight.

Still, those that discontinued Zepbound still ended the 88-week study with 9.9% less weight than they began with, indicating that they only regained about half the load they initially lost.

“When you take a look at the magnitude of the load gain, they gain back about half the load that they had originally lost over a one-year time frame,” lead study creator Dr. Louis Aronne, an obesity medicine specialist and professor of metabolic research at Weill Cornell Medicine in Latest York City, said in an interview with CNN.

About 17% of those that stopped Zepbound maintained no less than 80% of their original weight reduction, the study said. Meanwhile, 9 in 10 of the individuals who continued Zepbound were able to take care of no less than 80% of the load they lost.

Throughout the complete 88-week study, health-care professionals encouraged all patients to chop about 500 calories per day from their weight loss plan and exercise no less than 150 minutes per week. 

“Patients, providers and the general public don’t at all times understand obesity is a chronic disease that always requires ongoing treatment, which may mean that treatment is stopped once weight goals are met,” said Dr. Jeff Emmick, senior vp of product development at Eli Lilly, in an announcement. 

But Emmick said Monday’s study shows that “continued therapy may also help people living with obesity maintain their weight reduction.”

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