Tirzepatide effective even for those with diabetes and other complications

Having medical conditions linked to obesity does not impact the total weight loss achieved with the anti-obesity medication tirzepatide, according to a study presented by researchers from Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, NY, at ENDO 2024, the Endocrine Society's annual meeting in Boston, MA.

Obesity is known to cause or worsen over 200 diseases or conditions, and previous research has shown that patients who suffer multiple medical problems are not able to lose as much weight as those without medical issues. The study, funded by Eli Lilly, was designed to see if having more obesity-associated diseases results in less weight loss.

The researchers combined the results from four different trials. The designs of each study and the patient characteristics were different, but all the patients had obesity. In total, there were 4,726 subjects included in the study all of whom were living with obesity or overweight along with an obesity-related medical condition. A subset of 938 subjects from one of the four trials had type 2 diabetes.

The weight losses achieved in the tirzepatide groups were classified by the number of obesity-related conditions (no other medical conditions, one such condition, or two or more) compared to patients who received a placebo.

Participants who were older or had obesity for longer had a greater number of obesity-related comorbidities, as would be expected. Greater reductions in body weight were seen in participants treated with tirzepatide compared with placebo, regardless of the presence of other obesity-related conditions.

"Overall, tirzepatide treatment resulted in significant weight loss, regardless of the number of obesity-related complications patients had at the outset of the study," said lead researcher, Dr Sriram Machineni.