People taking Eli Lilly’s obesity drug, Zepbound, lost nearly 50% more weight than those using rival Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy in the first head-to-head study of the blockbuster medications.
Clinical trial participants who took tirzepatide, the drug sold as Zepbound, lost an average of 50 pounds (22.8 kilograms) over 72 weeks, while those who took semaglutide, or Wegovy, lost about 33 pounds (15 kilograms). That’s according to the study funded by Lilly, which was published Sunday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Both drugs are part of a new class of medications that work by mimicking hormones in the gut and brain that regulate appetite and feelings of fullness. But tirzepatide targets two such hormones, known as GLP-1 and GIP, while semaglutide targets GLP-1 alone, said Dr. Louis Aronne, director of the Comprehensive Weight Control Center at Weill Cornell Medicine.
“Two drugs together can produce better weight loss,” said Aronne, who led the study and presented the findings Sunday at the European Congress on Obesity in Spain.
While tirzepatide won out in what Aronne said many view as “a drag race of efficacy,” both are important tools for treating obesity, which affects about 40% of American adults.
“The point of these medications is to improve health,” he said. “The majority of people won’t need the most effective medication.”
The trial included 751 people from across the U.S. who were overweight or had obesity and at least one other weight-related health problem, but not diabetes. Participants received weekly injections of the highest tolerated doses of Zepbound, either 10 milligrams or 15 milligrams, or Wegovy, 1.7 milligrams or 2.4 milligrams.
By the end of the trial, those who took Zepbound lost about 20% of their body weight on average, compared with a nearly 14% loss for those who took Wegovy. The tirzepatide group trimmed about 7 inches (17.8 centimeters) from their waist circumference, compared to about 5 inches (12.7 centimeters) with semaglutide. In addition, nearly 32% of people taking Zepbound lost at least a quarter of their body weight, compared to about 16% of those taking Wegovy, the study found.
Weight loss was about 6% lower in men than in women in both groups, the authors noted. As participants in both groups lost more weight, they saw improvements in health markers such as blood pressure, blood fat and blood sugar levels.