The Next Generation of Weight-Loss Drugs Is Almost Here

Zealand Pharmaceuticals, a Danish biotech company, also shared results from its study published Sept. 29 in the Lancet of its amylin-based compound petrelintide, an experimental weekly injectable. It helped people who were overweight or obese—but who didn’t have diabetes—lose on average 10% of their body weight. (People who took a placebo lost only 1.7% of their body weight on average.) In the study, those even on the highest doses of the experimental drug reported similar rates of side effects as those who took a placebo shot.

Because of their efficacy and favorable side-effect profile, at least in experiments, amylin-based medications may one day be an attractive first-line therapy for many people who are looking to lose a moderate amount of weight without the unpleasant side effects associated with the GLP-1 group of weight-loss drugs. “The amylins still cause some nausea, but it’s at less than half the rate of what we generally see in GLP-1 trials,” says Dr. Timothy Garvey, professor in nutrition sciences and senior scientist in the nutrition obesity research center at University of Alabama who led the petrelintide trial. Not everyone needs drastic weight loss, he says, so amylin drugs could be a welcome option for them. “As more of these tools become available, we can individualize care better,” he says. “Primary care physicians may have an easier time prescribing these since they are better tolerated. So I am personally very sanguine about amylins.”