GLP-1 drugs like semaglutide hit the world a few years ago and quickly became one of the most popular drugs on the market. Sold under the names Ozempic and Wegovy, these drugs were primarily intended to treat people with type-2 diabetes, but they were also shown to be very effective at helping patients to lose weight.

They were under so much demand that there was a shortage of them, and many people were unable to get the medication even if their doctor was willing to prescribe it. Of course, celebrities and the wealthy had no trouble getting access to it, and they lost weight quickly and easily, which only served to boost demand even further.

While there is no doubt that this type of drug works well for both treating type-2 diabetes and losing weight, there are some downsides to it, even beyond its potentially serious side effects. Specifically, the medication must remain refrigerated, and it has to be given via an injection. This is because the drug is peptide-based, which means it can break down quickly if not kept in specific conditions.

The makers of semaglutide have tried to come up with a way to put the drug into pill form, but it was ineffective because when the peptides hit the stomach, the acids would break them down before they could be absorbed into the body.

Pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly, however, came up with a method that seems to be showing very promising results. They stopped trying to use peptides at all, and instead developed a tiny molecule that mimicked their behavior. Since the molecules were so small, they would get absorbed through the stomach lining before they could be broken down by the acids.

The company ran a clinical trial with 559 people, all of whom had type-2 diabetes. They report that the patients who were given the highest dose of this drug, which is being called orforglipron, over the course of 40 weeks were able to lose 7.9% of their body weight, which worked out to be an average of 16 pounds. In addition, their blood sugar levels dropped by 1.6%, which is encouraging.

On the downside, some patients reported that they experienced nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. All of these side effects are common with Ozempic and other injectable drugs like it.

Naveed Sattar is a professor of cardiometabolic medicine at the University of Glasgow, commented on this in a statement, saying:

“Having new oral agents that lower glucose but also meaningfully lower weight well beyond levels seen with most existing diabetes therapies is critical to future type 2 diabetes care. Of course, one caveat is that we do not know the effects of this newer therapy on cardiovascular outcomes but this will be forthcoming in future trials.”

Overall, while this clinical trial is very promising, more testing will undoubtedly be needed.

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