Losing 58.4 pounds! Tirzepatide surpasses gastric resection surgery

The results of an 84 week study in China have been released, showing that Tirzepatide helped patients lose 29.2 kilograms

Tirzepatide activates GIP and GLP-1 receptors in the human body, reduces calorie intake, regulates appetite, lowers weight and body fat, and regulates fat metabolism.

In May 2022, Tirzepatide was approved by the US FDA to be injected once a week, combined with diet control and exercise, to help improve the blood sugar control of adult type 2 diabetes patients. In addition, research in the field of weight loss has also been conducted.

In 2019, the SURMOUNT series III clinical trial of Tirzepatide was launched, including four global studies, one Chinese study, and one Japanese study, recruiting over 5000 obese or overweight patients. The research on SURMUNT-1 and SURMUNT-2 has achieved positive results.

The recently published SURBOUNT-3 study (NCT04657016) is a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, parallel, placebo-controlled study to evaluate the weight loss effect and safety of Tirzepatide and placebo in non type 2 diabetes adults with BMI ≥ 30kg/m ² or BMI ≥ 27kg/m ² and at least one complication.

This study included 806 patients from the United States, Brazil, and Argentina, who were randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to receive either 15mg or 10mg of Tirzepatide or placebo. The main endpoints of the study were the percentage decrease in body weight relative to baseline at 72 weeks and the proportion of patients who experienced a weight loss of at least 5%.

The research results showed that the primary endpoint was achieved at 72 weeks with an average weight loss of 21.1% for patients treated with Tirzepatide. At 84 weeks (including 12 weeks of intensive lifestyle intervention), the total average weight loss of the Tirzepatide treatment group reached 26.6% (29.2kg), while the placebo group only achieved 3.8% (4.1kg).

In terms of safety, the overall safety of Tirzepatide is similar to previous studies in the SURMASS and SURMASS series, with the most common adverse reactions still being gastrointestinal related and mostly mild to moderate.

The SUROUNT series of studies were also conducted simultaneously in China, with the only difference being that the SUROUNT-CN study included Chinese adult subjects with a BMI ≥ 28kg/m ² or at least one comorbidity and a BMI ≥ 24kg/m ², which is in line with China's definition of obesity and overweight.

On October 3rd, Eli Lilly and Company released the latest research data on SURMUNT-CN: at week 52, the weight of the 10mg and 15mg groups decreased by 14.4% and 19.9% respectively compared to baseline, which was better than the placebo group's 2.4%; The proportion of weight loss of at least 5% was 91.4% and 92.7%, respectively, which was better than the placebo group's 29.4%; The average waist circumference decreased by 11.9cm and 16.4cm relative to baseline, respectively, which was better than the placebo group's 2.7cm.

In the SURMOUNT-CN trial, the overall safety of Tirzepatide was similar to previous research reports, and no new safety hazards were found.

The weight loss effect continues to break records, comparable to surgery

It is worth noting that compared to the most effective weight loss method - weight loss surgery, this drug performs equally well in weight loss.

According to the Chinese Obesity Metabolic Surgery (COMES) database, gastric sleeve resection is currently the most commonly used metabolic weight loss surgery, accounting for up to 83%. According to the indications guidelines for weight loss metabolic surgery released by the American Society of Obesity Metabolic Surgery and the International Union of Obesity Metabolic Surgery in 2022, the average weight loss rate after sleeve gastrectomy for one year is only 25.2% (95% CI, 25.1% to 25.4%).